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The fascination of old collections: Histology in the Museum of Zoology

In her contribution, Lucie Helfmann takes us to the histological collection of the Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and shows us what more can be found there, beyond dusty slides.

For over a century, researchers at the University of Cambridge have used histology to reveal patterns of internal and soft-tissue anatomy, which would otherwise remain invisible. Over time, an extraordinary array of many thousands of histology slides has accumulated in Cambridge.

Seit über einem Jahrhundert nutzen Forscher:innen an der Universität Cambridge Histologie, um anatomische Eigenschaften von inneren Organen und Weichteilen zu untersuchen, die sonst verborgen blieben. Im Laufe der Zeit hat sich in Cambridge eine außergewöhnliche Sammlung von vielen Tausenden histologischen Präparaten angesammelt.


What is histology?

Histological examinations study the microscopic anatomy of tissue mounted on small glass slides, revealing properties that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The origins of histology date back to the 19th century, when CT and MRI scans did not yet exist.

Cross-section through the head of a ray (size about 1.5 cm). Photo: Lucie Helfmann, 2024.
How to create a histological slide. Lucie Helfmann, 2024.

To create a histological slide, a specimen is embedded in a supporting material, such as paraffin wax, and then cut into very thin slices (usually 5–15 µm). Bones and teeth have to be softened using a variety of acids and other reagents in order to be sliced. These slices are then transferred to glass slides in sequence and dyed using various chemicals, or “stains”, that differentially bind to soft tissues such as decalcified bone, teeth, muscles, and nerves. Which dye is used depends on the type of tissue you want to highlight. After staining, a cover slip is placed over the tissue on the slide to protect it. Now the slide is ready to be investigated under the microscope. In this way, the interior of specimen can be examined and even the finest tissue structures can be identified.

When I arrived in Cambridge, I found a room full of boxes, which were in turn filled with histological slides. In many cases, the origins of a given box was uncertain. The boxes had been moved several times over the decades, and some were quite old and worn.

Old box containing histological slides of sharks and rays. Scyllium canicula (today Scyliorhinus canicula ) is the small spotted catshark; Torpedo ocellata (today Torpedo torpedo ) is the common torpedo or eyed electric ray. ‘Trans’, ‘sagittal’ and ‘coronal’ refer to the directions in which the specimen was cut. Photo: Lucie Helfmann, 2024.

I examined each box, sorted its contents, and digitized all the available information about the slides. This work is crucial in order to make the collection more accessible for scientists all over the world. In the end, our goal is to construct a database where everyone can see what kind of specimens are housed in the Cambridge Museum of Zoology, and be able to determine if a given specimen might be useful for their research. Essential information might include the species, sample size, direction of cutting (e.g., horizontal or vertical), which stain was used, number of slices, anatomical region sampled, etc.

But during my work I found more than just slides. I found history dating to the foundation of the department itself. The oldest slides I found belonged to Francis Maitland Balfour, the first holder of the Chair of Animal Morphology in Cambridge in 1882 and regarded as Darwin’s successor. Tragically, Balfour died that very same year, just 30 years old, during a mountaineering accident in the Alps.

Francis Maitland Balfour, founder of the Department of Zoology in Cambridge (From: The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour).

His main research focused on elasmobranch fishes (sharks and rays) and their development. Despite his short life he left quite a legacy, consisting of thousands of slides. Some of them I could directly connect to Balfour’s work. Hence, the oldest slides are over 150 years old, and many remain in pristine condition! It’s impressive what was already possible at that time, to create such fine objects. Remember, the typewriter and the common light bulb had yet to be invented.

Balfour’s successor was Adam Sedgwick, a relative of the man after whom the museum is named. He took over Balfour’s instruction in animal morphology. Sedgwick also continued Balfour’s work on elasmobranchs and embryology. Because of their attention to detail and careful technical work, e.g. including precise places and dates of collection on many histological slides, it is easy to trace their work. For example, most of Sedgwick’s material is from the summer of 1890.

Example for a series of a shark’s head (Scyllium canicula). Each slide contains two slices of the specimen, Photo: Lucie Helfmann, 2024.

From the 1950s, Hans W. Lissmann was in charge of the histological collection. His main research topic were electric organs in fish like Gymnarchus niloticus (or the “aba”, a predatory fish from Central Africa). Together with Lissmann’s material, I found some notes and letters which, among other things, describe the story of a Mr. M. Omarkhan, who was also working on Gymnarchus. In one letter, Lissmann asked for the material of Omarkhan, which also turned out to be in one of the boxes I had organized. Further notes hinted that these might even be the slides R. Assheton wrote about in 1903. Again, there are publications that could be connected to these slides and these letters. With this material, we could open a window into how science worked at that time, without email, online databases, or Google Scholar.

A treasure box full of histological slides. You never know what you might find in there! Photo: Lucie Helfmann, 2024.

Today the method of creating histological slides remains widespread in hospitals and research universities, and it is still one of the best means to visualize internal and cellular anatomy. Although many aspects of the technique have changed, old material can still be used. Nowadays it is even possible to digitize histological slides and put them virtually back together to rebuild the old specimen and reconstruct parts thereof in three dimensions. Given that an animal must always be ‘sacrificed’ in order to create a histological series, it is desirable to reuse as much of the existing material as possible.

All of this shows how “old” material is often priceless, and how important it is to preserve the legacy of “old” collections, not only to save the material itself, but to reduce pressures on the animals and plants in living environments, and to preserve the remarkable history of the scientists on whose shoulders we stand today.


Literature

Alexander, R. M. (1996). Hans Werner Lissmann, 30 April 1909-21 April 1995. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 42, 235-245.

Assheton, R. (1907). The development of Gymnarchus niloticus. Cambridge University Press.

Balfour, F. M. (1885). The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour. (Vol. 1 – 4). Macmillan and Company.

Hall, B. K. (2003). Francis Maitland Balfour (1851–1882): a founder of evolutionary embryology. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution299(1), 3-8.

Lissmann, H. W. (1958). On the function and evolution of electric organs in fish. Journal of experimental biology35(1), 156-191.

Omarkhan, M. (1949). The morphology of the chondrocranium of Gymnarchus niloticus. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 41(281), 452-481.


Lucie Helfmann was awarded a Leibniz-Cambridge Museum & Collection Fellowship in Autumn 2024. At the University of Cambridge she curated the histological collection of the Museum of Zoology under the supervision of Dr. Robert Asher.


Title image: Four boxes containing histological slides of lizard tails. Photo: Lucie Helfmann, 2024.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Leibniz-Fellows (9. Dezember 2025). The fascination of old collections: Histology in the Museum of Zoology. Value of the Past. Abgerufen am 21. Januar 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/15ba4


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