SECTION TWO 



Technique: 



1. Stain sections or smears in the acid fuchsin (solution A) for 

 five minutes. 



2. Wash in running water for five minutes. 



3. Immerse in the dilute acetic acid (sokition B) for five 

 minutes. 



4. Wash in running water for five minutes. 



5. Stain in solution C for five minutes. 



6. Wash in running water for five minutes. 



7. Dehydrate through the usual graded alcohols. 



8. Clear in xylol. 



9. Mount in D.P.X. or Emexel or Canada balsam in xylol. 



Results: 



Strongly erythrophile (fuchsinophile) elements: red. Moder- 

 ately erythrophile elements: violet; all others yellow. Mitotic 

 figures (red) are easily distinguished against the yellow back- 

 ground, even with a medium-powered objective ( x 10). 



Notes: 



{a) Should the depth of the violet-stained (moderate erythro- 

 phile) elements be regarded as insufficient, then the strength of 

 the violamine in solution C can be doubled. 



{b) Sun yellow G, whose structure can be seen on page 62, 

 if used without the violamine, has an effect like that of orange G 

 on Falg and Faviol-stained preparations. It is, however, an in- 

 tensely yellow dye, so that after erasing all the Falg or basic Faviol 

 colours everywhere except in the strongly erythrophile elements, 

 it takes their place so that specimens so treated would be stained 

 yellow everywhere. 



(c) The standard Faviol method is particularly useful when 

 photomicrographs have to be taken in black and white mono- 

 chrome. Such photographs show the strongly erythrophile ele- 

 ments as full black; moderately erythrophile as dark grey; and the 

 yellow-stained areas appear as light grey. 



{d) The violamine 3B and Sun yellow G solutions should not 

 be mixed to form solution C in large quantities at a time, because 

 a reaction takes place between the two dyes and after a week 

 solution C becomes unreliable, resulting in the loss of yellow 



205 



