520 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



alcohol, and may be sectioned from this fluid. Some few specimens 

 become brittle ; these should be immersed for 24 hours in alcohol to 

 which 20-25 per cent, glycerin has been added. No water is to be 

 used. When the Fucus sections are placed in pure glycerin, they slowly 

 assume their original bulk, and may be advantageously mounted in 

 glycerin -jelly. This procedure should be carried out on the slide. 

 The sections should be stained with alcohol solutions of anilin dyes, 

 followed by glycerin and glycerin-jelly. The best results were obtained 

 with acetic gentian violet. Behrens recommends staining Fucus with 

 acetic carmin, passing slowly through alcohols up to 100°, oil of cloves, 

 balsam. This acetic carmin is prepared by making a saturated hot 

 solution of carmin in 45 per cent, acetic acid. The author tried this 

 method on male Fucus ; the sections were stained for one hour, then 

 soaked in alcohol for 12 hours, followed by glycerin and glycerin-jelly. 

 The results were excellent, but not so good as those mounted in 

 balsam. 



Demonstrating the Elastic Fibres of the Skin. * — Herr L. Merk 

 obtained excellent results with the following solution : — absolute alcohol 

 40 ccm., distilled water 20 ccm., nitric acid 20 drops. 



Eight to ten drops of this solution are mixed with 10 ccm. of a 

 3 per cent, solution of hydrochloric and alcohol. The sections (harden- 

 ing in alcohol or Zenker's fluid) are left in the staining solution for 

 24 hours and then washed in distilled water, after which they may be 

 examined in glycerin or in balsam, or they may be further stained with 

 methylen-blue, vesuvin, hematoxylin. 



Rapid Method for Demonstrating Amyloid Degeneration. j — The 

 sections to be examined are placed for 2 or 3 minutes in an iodo-potassic 

 iodide solution of the following composition : — Water 100, potassium 

 iodide 1, iodine in excess. The sections are then immersed in 1 per 

 cent, sulphuric acid. The degenerated parts then become dark green. 

 The sections are further treated with 96 per cent, alcohol, which changes 

 the green to a ccerulean blue. If mounted in glycerin, the degenerated 

 parts are blue and the non-degenerated yellow. 



Simple Apparatus for Washing several Preparations simul- 

 taneously. ± — Dr. E. Kolster describes an apparatus for washing several 

 preparations at the same time, and which is specially adapted for the 

 Marchi method. The essential features are easily understood from a 

 glance at the illustrations (figs. 138 and 139). Above is a glass vessel 

 capable of holding several litres, and having an opening near the bottom. 

 This is plugged with cork perforated for the passage of a glass tube. A 

 piece of rubber tubing connects the tube with another, the extremity of 

 which is drawn out to a very fine point. A clamp is fitted to the rubber 

 tubing, so that the outflow of water can be regulated. The rest of the 

 arrangement consists of a number of large test-tubes, which are con- 

 nected together by means of glass tubes and rubber tubing. One of 

 these tubes is long, and reaches to near the bottom of the test-tube, 



* S.B. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, cviii. (1899) pp. 335-80 (3 pis.). 



+ Clinic, vet. Oesterr. Monatschr. See Zeitschr. f. angew. Mikr., v. (1900) p. 214. 



J Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikr., xvii. (1900) pp. 9-13 (2 figs.). 



