The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-05-14

Though the Microtomist Is but Little
known fn Fama.

II n would see some micrOtomlst s
work, let him seek a medical student
possessed of a microscope. The same
will show him a number of glass slips,
three inches long, perhaps, by three
quarter wide. These will be labelled:
One, FMuscle;" another, "Sciatic
Nerve" a third, Scalp Of a Child"
and a fourth, Cats Liver" Such
names do not lead one to anticipate
art and beauty. and this makes the art
and beauty all the more charming. In
the center OF each of these slips, Gov
cred by IN extremely thin circular
disk Of glass, he will see a little slice
of matter, the size, perhaps. of the
head Of a tin tack, or smaller, and so
thin as to be altogether transparent.
This is, let us say, your eats liver,
etherealized by the microtomist. I'm
der the microscope it has the air OF a
circular stained glass window: the
"cells' of the liver form an interlacing
tracery of golden pink, and the diverse
blood vessels. of which there are three
sorts, appear, if injected, as branching
shapes of crimson, blue and other
sweet and pure ~colors, e such as
the Madonnas OF the old masters wear.
The scalp may be eve more delight
full, with its hairs like stout, brown
masts, a greenish cuticle and sunset
timed sub-dermal tissue below.
1t is obvious that with such an in
finite variety of material the micro
tomist must needs have a great variety
of instruments. Some things he cuts
with a common razor in his hand; such
must needs be of a firm consistency,
neither fabby nor brittle. Some again
larger things-he cuts with a pine.
Little things that he cannot hold he
imbeds in wax or carrot, or the plth of
the elder, and 81 gets a fingerful that
may be grasped and cut. A soft sub
stance, such as human muscle, he
hardens by the immersion of a lump of
it in a suitable fluid; or he takes it
fresh and almost living, and freezes it
firm upon a metal slab by means of
ether. A rock is cut into thin slices
by a lapidary's wheel, a rotating disk
of steel made keen by rubbing dia-
mond powder on the edge, n these
slices are stuck to a piece Of glass and
gradually rubbed thinner and thinner
upon emery powder of increasing fine
ness, and finally upon rouge. Pow
derry things like sand grains the micro
tomist overcomes by imbedding in
hard substances. He particularly
substances as coal. One would expect
mere blackness Of coal even at its
thinnest, but there are certain Goals
from Scotland which, when cut, reveal
myriads of little fattened cases Of
streaky orange or lemon-yellow color,
the spore shed long since by the trees
which persisted to form our coal seams.
There are in London perhaps half a
hundred or more human beings who
live by this unknown art. One we
know of plies his trade in a little den
high above the roar of the Strand. He
sits at his window facing the light,
watch-glasses and little shallow dishes
full of stains around him, microscope
and micrometer ready to hand, some
times amid a heavy aroma Of ether
times reminding oddly of pine trees
and wide mountain slopes, with the
r~esinous smell of his Canada balsam.
All about him are little bottles-in-
Vulnerable little bottles-labeled Skin
of toad ''orange pips," pine infores'
c~ence," 'Elancelet," kittens lung, y
'tumor." and the like-or rather the
unlike, some of them fit ingredients
for the brew of a witch. One whole
shelf presently catches the eye, labeled
s'Mrs. Webster" and in smaller letters
the part of Mrs. Webster is specified.
He relates a gruesome story in q
tone of pathetic regret; how this Mrs
Webster was a landlady of his who
died suddenly-''poor old lady"-and
was spost-mortemed'' by a confden.
tial friend. so I took these little me
mentoes,' he says, waving his hanc
at the shelf. 1t is a grim and sordic
fate for a landlady that she should
be peculated by her own ledger anC
~retailed at Cd, Cd. and Is. a slice
according to the choiceness of the
parts. But there are those who sus
meet our micrOtOmist of having OBJ
tanned his human material in a legiti
mate way from the dissecting room
and having created his Mrs. Webster
for literary effect.
Still, the tumble of matters in tn,
corpulent little bottles upon his shelves
remain odd enough; picked organism
from the deep sea are side by side will
scraps of plant, root and stem, and TIL
mortal remains of a pet puppy; Will,
a fruit that grew and ripened in 4;
Jungle of Borneo shares a bottle will
some cubic inch of substance that wa
, once part of the vestiture of a human
, soul in a London hospital. Sooner o
later they will come to the knife edg'
: and the glass slip. Our microtomist
indeed on the level Of Shakespeare. Al
| being pays its tribute to his art; h
: makes it clear and brilliant for US
using his stains and media not to hid
, but to display, making truth truer an
{ the visible plain. His work is a verita
? BILE m~icrocosm-a summary of tn
: world.
l The ordinary microtomists who Gu
sections for the medical students, as
;. rule. do little in the direction Of cut
5 ting rocks. This has a special tech