Some if not most sections will be perfectly OK without any adhesive, as long as the above drying regime is followed as a minimum. Various formulations of adhesive are useful, some of them are both effective and very simple to make at home, they will also store well for several months.
This is the section before the removal of wax, a basic idea of the embedded specimen's condition may be had at this stage....
- ws_t2_slide_1_1[1].jpg (55.34 KiB) Viewed 3356 times
This is the section after de-waxing, sitting in 95% IPA - the section must not be allowed to dry out before it's final mounting as this would almost certainly cause significant tissue damage. More detail is becoming visible, but the alcohol alone cannot allow any more than this very limited view.
- ws_t2_slide_1_3[1].jpg (78.89 KiB) Viewed 3356 times
Here the section has been stained with 'Fast Green' whilst still soaked in alcohol, for 2 minutes then rinsed in the same alcohol for about 5 seconds. A cover-slip has been (temporarily) applied as an aid to viewing under the microscope. Much more detail is visible and the somewhat poor quality of the section can now be seen - the tissue has a lot of damage and lacks any proper integrity - useful only for testing, not for permanent addition to my collection!
- ws_t2_slide_1_4[1].jpg (49.4 KiB) Viewed 3356 times
Here the section has had the cover-slip removed and been swamped in pure 'Histoclear' clearing-agent - the reason for doing this was purely to see what would happen when transferring straight from 95% IPA into pure Histoclear - it looks as though some tissue damage has been caused, but this could have been a consequence of the transfer rather than the chemistry - this slide is now quite useless but may simply have reached the limit of it's ability to tolerate manipulation.... One thing that is apparent is that the stain has remained in the tissues rather than being washed out or removed by the sudden change to Histoclear, a useful piece of information to have.
- ws_t2_slide_1_6[1].jpg (65.77 KiB) Viewed 3356 times
