Dear Trisha,
most histo-labs in Australia, use Rotary microtomes and normally they are
unsuited for larger specimens, although I am sure some of us have attempted
to do so on rare occasions. While it is a long time since , in the past I
used either a sliding microtome or Base Sledge, I've still got a MSE sledge
in mothballs, but paper mounts and the like that I did in the past are no
longer required by most Pathologist in Human Anatomy.
In summary most labs would restrict the size of their tissue processed at
cut-up to the largest size mold used by their embedding systems  eg. Tissue
tek, shandon or other,; or alternatively by the size of their largest
processing disposeable processing cassette.
Regards Mike (Downunder)
-----Original Message-----
From: P. Emry <emry@u.washington.edu>
To: HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu <HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu>
Date: Friday, 4 June 1999 10:07
Subject: specimen size


>Dear Netters,
>
>I have read the comments on standing up to section and it started me to
>wondering about the size of specimens most of you work with. Mine need so
>much messin' about with that standing up seems impractical.
>
>I am a research tech working on pig parts, jaw joints, etc. that can run
>from 2.5 cm x 2.0 cm
>to 4.5 cm x 4.0 cm.  They can be .3 cm to .8 cm thick.
>It would help me to understand the advice and information being given if
>I could put it into a proper context.
>
>Would you(s) let me know what the usual specimen sizes are that you deal
>with and if the sizes I am working on are unique?  Perhaps it will
>help me to ask better questions if I put my work into a better context
>too.
>
>Thanks for your time.
>
>Trisha
>Orthodontics Research Lab
>U of Washington, Seattle
>
>
>