Abstract: A thin sample on a surface such as a tissue specimen on a microscope slide is exposed to treatment liquid such as a stain, antibody of nucleic acid probe. The treatment is accelerated by exposing the treatment liquid on the surface to infrared radiation. A device is disclosed for placing such slides into a treatment chamber, for example as a plurality of slide pairs held vertically, with treatment liquid held in capillary gaps between each slide pair. An infrared radiation source provides radiation into the treatment chamber to accelerate the treatment of samples on such slide (on one or both surfaces facing each capillary gap) by the treatment liquid.

Abstract: A holder holding in fixed array:(a) a plurality of vertically-extending slides each having a vertically-extending face,(b) a plurality of vertically-extending cover members, each having a vertically-extending face, each face of a vertically-extending slide being spaced by a first distance less than 0.5 mm from a face of a vertically-extending cover member. The holder engages the vertically-extending slides and vertically-extending cover members adjacent to their upper ends in a fixed array with the sample face of each slide being a first distance from a substantially parallel face of a vertically-extending cover member. The lower edge of each slide extends horizontally and is spaced from a substantially parallel horizontally-extending lower edge of a cover member by the first distance. The space between the horizontally-extending lower edges is open.