680 



SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Modification of the Romanowsky Stain.* — H. F. Harris while 

 studying the malaria parasite, found the Romanowsky staining method 

 and its many modifications uncertain. He recommends that, in place 

 of the methylen-biue solution being mixed with the eosin, they should 

 be used separately. His method is as follows : — Place the blood-film in 

 a 1-1000 solution of Gruebler's water-soluble eosin for 30 sec. to 2 min. ; 

 well wash and place in a solution containing 2 • 5-5 parts Unna's alkaline 

 methylen-blue, with distilled water to make 100 parts, for 5-10 minutes 

 if the preparation is recent, longer if it is old. (To this solution 

 2 • 5 parts of a 1 p.c. solution of methylen-blue may be 

 added with advantage.) Wash again, and if the film 

 be too blue pour on it a solution of Unna's glycerin- 

 ether mixture made by adding one drop of this com- 

 -i pound to 10 c.cm. of water, then after a few seconds 

 wash, and dry without heat. The author claims that by 

 his method very old preparations may be stained. For 

 fixing the films he advocates a few seconds in Reuter's 

 10 p.c. formalin and alcohol mixture. 



(6) Miscellaneous. 



'(2 New Sterilisable Hypodermic Syringe for Aseptic 

 and Bacteriological Injection Experiments. f- — Made by 

 Christian Kob and Co., Stiitzerbach. The syringe described 

 (fig. 162) is not really new, having been made by the same 



j firm for several years. It consists of an inner glass tube 

 A almost closed at one end, a small hole '5—1 mm. wide 

 being left. At the other end there is first a constriction 

 K, then a bulging W, and lastly a cone C ground to fit 

 the hollow needle. The lower two-thirds of this tube are 



* graduated up to 10 c.cm. outside, and two-thirds the length 

 of A is another glass tube B wholly closed at the end. It 

 is connected with A by means of a rubber ring Gr which 

 while taking a firm grip of B is able to slip up and down 

 A easily but hermetically. When B is drawn out the 

 liquid to be injected is drawn up into A, and when the 

 movement is reversed it is expelled. Simplicity, cheap- 

 ness, and easy sterilisability are claimed for the syringe ; 

 also that it can be used with one hand, and can be laid 

 down when full or even inverted. 



New Method of Counting the Corpuscles of the 

 Fig. 162. Blood. f.—W. M. Strong and C. Gr. Seligmann. A mea- 

 sured quantity of the blood is mixed with a measured 

 quantity of a fixing solution with which is combined a suitable stain. A 

 measured drop of the mixture is allowed to evaporate to dryness on a 

 slide and then is mounted in balsam. The number of corpuscles, red 



* Centralbl. Bakt., V Abt. Orig., xxxiv. (1903) pp. 188-91. 

 t Zeitschr. angew. Mikr., ix. (1903) pp. 58-61 (1 fig.). 

 j Brit. Med. Journ., July 11, 1903, pp. 74-7. 



