'In May, 1871, I published in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology an account of a microtome invented by me for the purpose of facilitating the process of freezing and of cutting frozen tissues. The apparatus there described and figured, although capable of doing much, is not quite so perfect as the following modification adopted by me some months ago. This new apparatus answers the purpose so satisfactorily that it is now full time for me to publicly direct attention to it.' (108)

'The chief difficulty with the freezing process has been, that in the apparatus usually employed the amount of the freezing mixture engaged has been too small for the surrounding circumstances; and thus of Prof. Rutherford's apparatus I have always heard it said, that it either never completely freezes the tissue, or that the complete freezing lasts for so short a time as to be of little use. This I can readily understand, for Dr Rutherford directs methylated spirit to be placed in the well to prevent the screw freezing, and that the tissue be imbedded in a solution of gum, &c., so that the process is made very complicated. Before the appearance of Prof. Rutherford's description of his instrument (July, 1873), I had had one almost identical in use for many months, but I have since had to modify it very much on account of repeated failures.' (250)

'During the thirteen years that have elapsed since I invented the freezing microtome, the method of freezing has come into general use as an aid to microscopical research in physiology and pathology. It has also become of much service in aiding the practical study of these subjects, especially when they have to be taught to large numbers of students. The original ice and salt freezing microtome described by me in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 1871, vol. v., was somewhat faulty. The improved form of the instrument (Fig. 2) described by me in The Lancet, 1873, vol. ii., has been constantly used in my laboratory since that time. We have no difficulty in making with it from four to five hundred sections of the retina, kidney, or other organ, in the course of an hour.' (4)

'After a year's experience of my apparatus, I constructed another, in which the well for holding the tissue was smaller in proportion to the size of the box for holding the freezing mixture than in my first apparatus. Rotation of the brass plug at the bottom of the well was prevented. The screw for elevating the plug was made steadier, and an indicator for giving sections of any thinness was attached, so that the tyro might at once use the apparatus successfully. I described this second microtome in the Lancet (July, 1873). Mr Lawson Tait makes the remarkable statement in the last number of this Journal (IX. 250), that "of Prof. Rutherford's apparatus I have always heard it said, that it either never completely freezes the tissue, or that the complete freezing lasts for so short a time as to be of little use." I have only to say in reply to this that the identical microtome figured and described by me in the Lancet has been constantly used by my assistants and myself for more than two years without its ever having been discovered that it "never completely freezes the tissue, or that the complete freezing lasts for so short a time' as to be of little use." On the contrary, the apparatus is used with the greatest success for providing a great class of practical histology with something like two hundred sections of the retina, the same number of unhardened lymphatic gland, and other soft organs.' (178-179)