A New Rocking Microtome

Abstract

SERIAL section-cutting has sprung into such prominence during the last fifteen years, and has now become so essential to almost every branch of biological research, that we are apt to forget that we are still using, practically unmodified, one of the earliest invented automatic microtomes. The Rocking Microtome designed by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was first put before the public in 1885, within a short time of the appearance of the very earliest of all automatic microtomes, that designed by Caldwell and Threfall. The simplicity, efficiency and cheapness of the former soon caused it to become both widely known and used by all biologists, and it may be doubted whether any instrument has ever spread so rapidly and deservedly over so wide an area as the familiar “rocker” which is now a characteristic feature in all laboratories in which any branch of biology is taught.