SECTION TWO 



1. Fresh thick blood smears are made on scrupulously clean 

 slides and placed in a moist chamber, immediately, to prevent 

 drying. 



Note: The moist chamber may consist of a petri dish the lid 

 of which is lined with two sheets of filter paper, moistened with 

 warm water to accelerate clotting. 



2. After the blood has coagulated and the fibrin framework has 

 formed (this takes about six to ten minutes) take the slides out of 

 the moist chamber and transfer to distilled water to haemolyse 

 the red corpuscles: this takes about five to thirty minutes. 



3. Change the water when it is tinged red. 



4. When the haemolysis is complete : that is when all traces of 

 red colour has disappeared from the slides and the fibrin network 

 appears as a whitish film on the slide, remove slides and carefully 

 blot away excess water, but do not blot network owing to risk of 

 displacement. 



5. Stain for eight minutes in carbol crystal violet. 



6. Rinse in distilled water and carefully blot oflt excess water. 



7. Pass through three or four changes of dioxane and mount 

 quickly in D.P.X. or Cristallite or Clearmount, before the net- 

 work drys. 



Results: 



Fibrin network is stained violet. White cells appear as irregul- 

 arly shaped black dots. Platelets appear as black dots about the 

 size of a pin head. 



Reference: Badertscher, J. A. (1952), Stain Tech., 27, no. 4, 217-20. 



CARBOL FUCHSIN 

 For acid fast lipofuscins 



Solutions required: 



155 



