Having prepared and filtered some of this dilute solution, say an ounce, let us proceed to stain with it those sections which we left in the basin of water (§ 12). Here we are at once met by a practical difficulty. How are the sections to be transferred from one vessel to the other? This is ordinarily effected by means of a soft camel’s-hair pencil. It is a method, however, open to grave objections, for the sections so curl around the brush, and get entangled amidst its hairs, that, notwithstanding every care, valuable sections not unfrequently become torn during transit. Every difficulty at once vanishes if we substitute for the brush a small implement, which any one can readily make for himself. All that is necessary is to take a strip of German-silver, or copper, of the thickness of stout cardboard, and about seven inches in length by five-eighths of an inch in breadth. The sharp angles are to be filed off and the edges carefully smoothed, whilst at a distance of five-eighths of an inch from each extremity the end must be turned up so as to form an angle of about 35°. One end must be left plain, whilst the other, with the aid of a punch or drill, is to be pierced with five holes about the thickness of a stocking needle[8] (see Figure). If we now dip the perforated end of this spoon into the water containing the sections, and gently agitate it, the sections will rise from the bottom and float about. The spoon is now brought under one of them, and being steadily lifted up the water flows downwards through its apertures, and the section smoothly spreading itself out upon the spoon, may be gently lifted out of the water, and on the spoon being dipped into the staining fluid the section at once floats off. By this simple means sections, however large, thin or delicate, may with ease be conveyed from one fluid to another, with the utmost certainty of their not being injured during the process. The sections having been in the carmine fluid for about twenty-four hours, as much of the liquor as is possible must be gently poured off, and its place supplied by a freshly-filtered mixture of five drops of glacial-acetic acid to one ounce of water, when in a few moments the carmine will become permanently _fixed_ in the tissue, and the process of staining be complete. Footnote 8: Dr. Klein describes a kind of “lifter,” made by bending some German-silver wire, but as no drawing accompanies his description, it is not easy to form a clear idea as to the form of this instrument. In the recent and philosophical work of Schäfer, a lifter is figured, which consists of a wire stem, having attached to its end a spade-like blade. It will be observed that the spoon described in the text differs from this lifter in having one end perforated, and in this consists the real value of the implement.