INTRODUCTION

This is an UNOFFICIAL account of the interim meeting conducted (Friday, July 14th 1995) at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The views put forth here are those of the writer and NOT of the International Society for Plastination.

It was Bastille Day and it was hotter than the hubs of hell, but the only "storming of the fort" that took place was when the interin1meeting of the International Society for Plastination took over the auditorium of Goss Hall at the Ohio State University School of Veterinarian Medicine and talked about fixation, dehydration, defatting, impregnation, and curing of specimens.

Bill Richeimer, Rita Remy and their assistants had things well in hand organization-wise, and we were greeted by the Dean of the school. Harmon Bickley held forth about the early days of plastination. It's always a pleasure to hear Harmon talk about the wins and losses, trials and troubles, successes and surprises that he, and those he knows well, have experienced in bringing this technology to its present-day level. One of these days we need to establish a "Distinguished Chair of Plastination" and seat Harmon in it in perpetuity.

Bob Henry and I had been tapped to do the standard S-10 dog and pony show. Bob was having some trouble getting a grandchild brought into the world and I had had a premonition that most of those in attendance would be experienced plastinators so I had gathered up several specimens to take along that were other-than-ordinary specimens. One or two had been damaged by hard use. One was an old museum specimen heart that we had had for several years as a wet specimen and was consequently discolored but had a "ball and cage" valve in it along with the remaining  suturing; a longitudinal cut of a Pager's syndrome tibia that showed marrow still in place (there was a discussion of this on the net a month or two ago); a mesenteric artery that illustrated how to deal with difficult shapes when curing a specimen; and an entire infant that illustrated how it is sometimes necessary to do considerable hypodermic on externalities and the interior of the cranium.

Gilles Grondin made two presentations . One concerned his ingenious method of acetone reclamation and the other concerned color injection of the hand to assist anatomy students in understanding both the superficial and the deep vessels. I don't know if Gilles stays up all night thinking up new ways and means to do plastination , but over the years he had come up with some very useful techniques. I am envious of his ability to analyze and overcome hinderances that we all encounter in our work.

I am always impressed by anyone that is willing to share their failures as well as their successes. Bill Martin did just that in relating his experience in plastinating a thorax/ abdomen block from a rabbit. The key to this final success was filling the gut with a gel during the fixation stage.

After having known Alex Lane for several years, I am convinced that Alex only sees people in terms of anatomical planes. He has made outstanding use of plastinated specimens cut in the various planes and compares them to CAT scans of the same area in teaching that diagnostic method to students of ancillary medical arts such as med techs, physical therapists, and nurses.

Andreas Weiglein did Yeomans duty by making  three presentations concerning plastinated specimens and neuroscience. He is now experienced in using some of the newer polymer procedures and the results are outstanding. Graz is lucky to have him.

Michael Wu displayed nicely prepared brain specimens for us to examine.

Bill did a good job of feeding us at noon although he denied staying up all night and doing the cooking. Bill has a well equipped plastination lab and we got to see two students doing some outstanding prosections for the upcoming school year.

As could be expected, we told numerous lies to each other about how much we are being paid, about the tight purse strings at our respective institutions, mcl about how much we drank at the previous plastination meetings. While this was an abbreviated meeting, much good information was shared amongst the group. I am reminded that I am glad that the plastinator' s meetings a.re a "manageable" size group of people and the individual technician does not get lost in a morass of personalities with a lot of political axes to grind. Those in attendance are there for a learning experience rather than to see and be seen.

An announcement was made about the full international meeting scheduled for next year in Brisbane, Queensland , Australia and the sponsors had forwarded literature for our perusal and pipe-dreaming until we can get there. According to the brochure the elates are 14-19 July 1996. Make your plans early.