The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-05
MIoRoToMY A FINE ART.
Though the Microtomist Cuts a Very
Small Figure.

From the Pail Mall Budget.
The art of microtomy is really the fin
est of all fine arts Indeed, so exquisitely
delicate is it that it would seem TO have
hitherto escaped even the subtle appre-
citation of the amateur, who rangeth
where he listeth knowing all things and
believing all things The public is I'M
familiar with the name of the art; the
fame of the microtOmist is not nosed
abroad. Those who appreciate the little
glass slips with Cole Deum' thereon the
quaint motto Of the Elder Cole, are less in
number than those who gather walking
sticks or rejoice in the tracings of brasses.
Indeed collecting is almost unknown,
though why people should collect stamps
and leave these things alone surpasses our
Imagination. A day will come, however,
when slides for the microscope by the
early masters who are even yet living will
be as eagerly sought and fondly treasured
as were ever book plates or violins. Pity
it Is they worked in Canada balsam,
which has the trick of decay.
1t is even possible that the reader needs
to be told what this microtomy may be.
1t is, poor soul, the delightful art of cut
ting incouceivably thin sections of every
conceivable substance. There is nothing
one may not cut, save ones friends-your
fingers always volunteer of their own &C
cord sooner or later; but some things are
unlawful, as, for instance, the coin of the
realm, and some are not convenient, as
the tail of a live lion. Moreover, the
thing cut must be mounted cunningly on
a glass slip, for the end for which the
section exists is to be examined under a
microscope
If one would see some microtomist's
work, let him seek medical student
possessed of a microscope. The same
will show him a number of glass slips
three inches long, perhaps, by three
quarters wide. These will be labeled:
one, "MuScle' another, "Sciatic Nerve, "
a third, "Scalp of a Child, - and fourth
Cats LiVer.N 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, covered by an extremely
thin circular disc 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
cats liver etheredlized by the micro
tOmist Under the microscope it has the
air of a circular stained glass window
the cells" of the liver form an inter-
lacing tracery of golden pink, and the
diverse blood vessels, OF which there are
ing shapes of crimson blue and other
sweet'and pure colors, even such as the
MadonnaS of the old masters wear. The
scalp may be even more delightful, with
its hairs like stout. brown masts, a green
ish cuticle and substituted sub-dermal
tissues below
1t is ob-ious that with such an infinite
variety of material, the micrOtomist must
needs have a great variety of instruments.
Soma THINGS he putS with a POTnrr1On ~ 2o,.
in his hand such must needs be of firm
consistency, neither flabby nor brittle.
Some again-larger things cuts with
a plane. Little things that he cannot
hold he i'm beds in wax or carrot, or the
pith Of the elder, and so gets a fngerful
that may be grasped and cut. A soft
substance, 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 lapidary's wheel,
a rotating disc of steel made keen by rub
bling diamond powder on the edge, and
these slices are stuck TO piece of glass
and gradually rubbed thinner upon emery
powder of increasing fineness, and finally
upon rouge. Powdery things like sand
grains, the micrOtomist overcomes by i'm
bedding in hard substances. He parCicu-
larry breads and re,oiccs over such brittle
substance as coal. One would expect
mere blackness of coal even at its thin
nest, but there are certain Goals from
Scotland. which, when cut, reveal myri-
ads of little fattened cases of a streaky
orange or lemon-yellow color, the spore
shed long since by the trees which per-
ished to form our coal seams.
There are in London perhaps half hun
dred or more human beings who live by
this unknown art One we know of, plies
his trade IN q little den high above the
roar OF the Strand. He sits at his win
dow facing the light, watch glasses and
little shallow dishes full Of stains around
him, microscope and micrometer ready TO
hand sometimes amid a heavy aroma of
ether from the freezing microtome. and
sometimes reminding one oddly Of pine
trees and wide mountain slopes, with the
resinOus smell of his Canada balsam. All
about him are little bottles 5innumera
little bottles labeled Skin of toad
''orange pips, ''pine inforescence,"
"lancelet," kittens lung" '-tumourp
and the hke--or rather the unlike. some
OF them fit ingredients or the brew of a
witch. One whole shelf presently catches
the eye, labeled Mrs. Webster, /" and in
smaller letters the part Of Mrs. Webster
specified
He relates a gruesome story in a tone
of pathetic regret how this Mrs. Webs
ter was a lanolady Of his who died sud
denly-''poor old lady'--and was post
fDortpuneaN bv "A confidential friend