Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 07:02:49 -0800 (PST)
From: jill cox <jcox90@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: (Re: Mounting medium jars)
To: Ian Montgomery <ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk>

Hi, what I was looking for is the glass container you
put your plastic pipet in. jill
--- Ian Montgomery <ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk>
wrote:
> Jill,
>          Been using the same system as Louise for
> many years now. Rather
> than an accident with a syringe I was finding that
> glass pipettes would
> break at the tip leaving small shards of glass in
> the mounting media. These
> would eventually find their way onto the slide
> causing all sorts of problems.
> Ian.
>
>
> >Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 10:25:27 +0000
> >From: louise renton <louise_renton@hotmail.com>
> >Subject: (Re: Mounting medium jars)
> >To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> >
> >Dear Jill
> >
> >We have for a long time, (since an unfortunate
> accident with a glass
> >syringe) used 3ml plastic Pasteur pipettes as
> "droppers" for mounting media.
> >They have the advantage of being relatively
> inexpensive,  require no
> >cleaning (dispose of once the mounting is done) and
> that the droplet size
> >can be adjusted by judicious trimming of the end.
> They can - clean ones I
> >mean - also double up as little chemical scoops if
> the bulb end is cut off
> >horizontally
> >
> >I have no idea, though, whether this syetm would be
> acceptable by cautious
> >USA standards.
> >
> >Louise
> >BRU, MRC
> >Johannesburg
> >South Africa
> >
> >>From: "J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@uwo.ca>
> >>To: jill cox <jcox90@yahoo.com>
> >>CC: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> >>Subject: Unduly long (Re: Mounting medium jars)
> >>Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 01:35:12 -0500
> >>
> >>I've never owned a balsam bottle of my own, but
> have used
> >>them, and never liked them.  It was easier and
> less
> >>messy to make blunt-ended glass rods and dip them
> >>into the bottle of mountant. When not in use, the
> >>glass rod rested in the last (pre-coverslip) tank
> of
> >>xylene. This was good because (a) the end of the
> rod
> >>was always clean - didn't get bigger with
> accumulated
> >>goo, and (b) the small amount of mountant
> dissolved in
> >>the last tank of xylene increased its sensitivity
> to
> >>carried-over alcohol, indicated by opalescence.
> Then
> >>and now, you don't mount from cloudy xylene.
> >>
> >>Since abandoning glass rods (see below), I've
> probably
> >>seen more slides with obvious contamination of the
> mountant
> >>with alcohol. There always were plenty of these
> because
> >>students didn't look critically at their slides
> until they
> >>needed high quality photos to put in their theses.
> >>Nevertheless, I have a feeling in my urine that
> the
> >>future of manual coverslipping is not with either
> the
> >>lab-forged glass rod or the commercial balsam
> bottle,
> >>but with the squeeze-controlled medium dispenser.
> >>
> >>My advice is therefore:
> >>If you can't find just a few balsam bottles,
> >>consider buying a mountant that comes in a
> >>plastic bottle that you invert and squeeze.
> >>
> >>I discovered these a few years ago, and since
> >>then I've hardly touched a glass rod. The medium
> >>I use is called Cytoseal; it's in the Fisher
> >>Scientific catalogue, and the label indicates
> >>that the main ingredient is
> poly(methylmethacrylate).
> >>It doesn't behave quite as nicely as Entellan, a
> >>much more expensive poly(methylmethacrylate)
> >>mountant that needs glass rodding, but it's OK.
> >>
> >>Unless you make your own DPX it's necessary to
> live
> >>with some trade secrecy with synthetic resinous
> >>mounting media. Probably there are mountants other
> >>than Cytoseal that come pre-packaged in
> ready-to-use
> >>modular combined storage and application units.
> >>
> >>Even 10-thumbed new graduate students (who call it
> >>glue) quickly learn to apply the right amount of
> >>mountant from a squeezy bottle without getting it
> >>all over the place and sticking slides permanently
> >>onto benches and hotplates. (The name glue came
> from
> >>this unwanted action of mounting medium that
> dripped
> >>unseen from the ends of the glass rods.)
> >>
> >>This doesn't answer your question, but it might
> help.
> >>--
> >>-------------------------
> >>John A. Kiernan
> >>Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
> >>The University of Western Ontario
> >>London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
> >>    kiernan@uwo.ca
> >>    http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/
>
>>_____________________________________________________
> >>jill cox wrote:
> >> >
> >> >   Hello everyone,
> >> >       I have been looking for the mounting
> medium jars
> >> > for coverslipping and cant find anything except
> one
> >> > brand where you have to order a case at a time.
> They
> >> > are too expensive that way. Does anyone know
> where I
> >> > can get 2 to 3 of them? Thanks in advance
> >> >
> >> > =====
> >> > Jill Cox HT (ASCP)
> >> > Seattle Histology Lab
> >>
> >>Is there only one histology lab in Seattle?
>
>>_____________________________________________________
> >
>
>_________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
>
> Dr. Ian Montgomery,
> Histotechnology,
> Graham Kerr Building,
> Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences,
> University of Glasgow,
> Glasgow,
> G12 8QQ.
> Tel: 0141 339 8855
> Office: 4652
> Lab: 6644.
> Pager: 07625 702883
> e-mail: ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk
>


=====
Jill Cox HT (ASCP)
Seattle Histology Lab

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