IMPORTANT STORAGE AND HANDLING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUR PREPARED MICROSCOPE SLIDES
In order to ensure years of useful service from your microscope slides, please observe the following suggestions:
1. STORE SLIDES HORIZONTALLY IN A COOL, DARK PLACE.
The mounting resin often remains viscous at the center of the preparation (especially in whole mounts). Storage "on end” in a warm room may allow specimens to drift downward toward the bottom edge of the cover-slip. Resin may also melt and leak from under the cover-slip. Prolonged exposure to light (including that from the microscope illuminators) can cause rapid fading of stains which would otherwise last for years.
2. AVOID PRESSURE ON THE COVER-SLIP.
Cleaning or polishing should be done very gently. Since the mounting resin never fully hardens, lateral pressure can slide the coverslip across the specimens, scratching or tearing them. Vertical pressure can easily crush specimens, even though the coverslip may not necessarily be broken. Freshly applied immersion oil may be gently wiped away, and the remaining film removed with alcohol. Dried immersion oil may be dissolved with xylene or toluene. To avoid loosening the coverslip, slides should not be immersed in any solvent; instead, tissues or swabs should be used.