Rocking microtome, Cambridge, England, 1885
The razor of this microtome is fixed and the specimen to be sliced for microscopic examination passes up and down in an arc of a circle across the razor in a rocking motion. The microtome is fixed on to a table, so that specimens fall to the desktop, before being mounted onto slides. Typical specimens in-clude human and animal body tissues and plants which could be studied by histologists in laboratories and, later, hospitals. The rocking microtome was invented by Sir Horace Darwin (1851-1928), the son of Charles Darwin. The microtome was still available in the twentieth century. It was loaned to the Science Museum by The Cambridge Scientific In-strument Company, as a piece of new technology when it was first developed in 1885. It later became part of the permanent collection.
Object number:
1885-50
Related Themes and Topics
Glossary:
Glossary: histology
The study of the structure of tissues by means of special staining techniques combined with light and electron microscopy.
Glossary: microtome
An instrument used to cut thin sections of biological material so that they can be examined under a microscope.