374 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ous tissues {Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, 

 July, 1878). 



Rapid Staining by moans of Carmine. 



Dr. II. Obensteiner states that sections of the nerve system 

 (brain and spinal marrow of man and animals) may be rap- 

 idly stained by placing the sections in a watch-glass contain- 

 ing the carmine solution, and suspending them in the steam of 

 boiling water; from two to five minutes are required. After 

 the staining is completed the sections are washed twice in 

 distilled water, placed for a few minutes in common alcohol, 

 and for the same time in absolute alcohol, and, finally, in oil 

 of cloves for examination. The preparations thus treated 

 are colored in a specially sharp and distinct manner e.g., 

 the connective-tissue corpuscles, together with their long 

 continuations into the substance of the brain, which insert 

 themselves into the adventitia of the vessels, come out with 

 a distinctness which it is difficult to obtain by other means 

 (Archiv fur Mikroskopische Anatomic, vol. xv., 1). 



Gold Staining, and the Termination of the Nerve in the Unstri- 



ated Muscles. 



Professor Ranvier recommends the following modification 

 of the gold method in a recent communication to the French 

 Academy. The preparation is placed for five minutes in 

 fresh lemon-juice, filtered ; then it is put, for fifteen or twen- 

 ty minutes, in three cubic centimeters of a 1 per cent, solu- 

 tion of chloride of gold ; then in twenty-five to thirty grams 

 of distilled water, to which is added one or two drops of 

 acetic acid. Two or three days afterwards, when under the 

 influence of sunlight and the slightly acid medium the re- 

 duction of the gold has been effected, the preparations are 

 ready for examination. Fragments of striated muscles, treat- 

 ed as above, or, better, when, after having been subjected to 

 the action of the gold, they have been placed for twelve 

 hours, sheltered from the light, in a 20 per cent, solution of 

 formic acid, and then prepared by teasing, show the terminal 

 nervous arborizations admirably clear, and colored a deep 

 violet. The author finds: (1) In the unstriated muscles, the 

 nerves terminate, as in the striated muscles, at the surface 

 of the muscular elements by an expansion, more or less ar- 



