Automatic stainer having a heating station

In an automatic stainer for staining specimens that are arranged on specimen slides and embedded in a medium, said stainer comprising a plurality of reagent containers arranged one after another to successively receive said specimen slides for treating said specimens, a plurality of transport baskets each carrying one or more of said specimen slides such that said plurality of transport baskets can be received simultaneously each in a different one of said plurality of reagent containers, a motorized transport mechanism having a lifting device for simultaneously lifting said plurality of transport baskets out of said reagent containers and transporting said plurality of transport baskets into successive reagent containers, the improvement comprising:

• a heating station arranged before said plurality of reagent containers for heating said specimen slides and melting said embedding medium, said heating station having at least one melting container for simultaneously receiving more than one of said plurality of transport baskets.