410 BLOOD AND GLANDS 



the benzidene solution applied for two minutes. It is washed 

 thoroughly in water and counterstained two minutes with safranin, 

 neutral red or carbol fuchsin and mounted in cedar wood oil. 

 Peroxidase granules a deep blue. In the case of rabbit blood 

 {ibid., X, 1928, p. 293) they recommend that the quantity of 

 HgOg be doubled. Ibid, (xi, 1928, p. 1) gives a modification which 

 distinguishes between eosinophil and pseudoeosinophil cells. 



The following method given in the monthly Bull, of the Path, 

 and Bad. Lab. Assists. Assocn., ii, 1935, p. 48, gives good results. 

 Films are fixed two minutes in freshly prepared formalin 1 part, 

 95 per cent, alcohol 9 parts. They are washed in tap-water and 

 stained in a freshly prepared benzidene solution made by dis- 

 solving a few granules of benzidene in 10 c.c. of 40 per cent, 

 alcohol and adding 1 drop of HaOa (10 volumes). Stain five to 

 ten minutes, wash films in tap-water and counterstain in 1 per 

 cent, methylen blue for a few seconds. 



Cytoplasm of lymphocytes and allied cells blue, red cells green, 

 and cells of polymorph series amber. 



889. GLANDS. (See Chapter XXX) 



Mucin. While many stains are used for the demonstration of 

 this substance, none of them is to be regarded as being specific, 

 and also the secretory contents of many undoubted mucous cells 

 fail to stain by the usual mucous stains and require special 

 techniques. 



HoYER {Arch. mik. Anat., xxxvi, 1890, p. 310) finds that the 

 mucin of mucous cells and goblet cells stains with basic tar colours 

 and with alum haematoxylin, but not with acid tar colours. He 

 obtained his best results by means of thionin, and good ones with 

 toluidin blue, both of these giving a metachromatic stain — 

 tissues blue, mucin reddish — and also with methylen blue (which 

 is particularly useful for its power of bringing out the merest 

 traces of mucin), safranin, etc. 



Tissues should be fixed for two to eight hours in 5 per cent, 

 sublimate solution, and paraffin sections stained for five to fifteen 

 minutes in a very dilute aqueous solution of the dye (2 drops of 

 saturated solution to 5 c.c. of water). 



Hyaline cartilage, the jelly of Wharton, and the Mastzellen of 

 Ehrlich give the same reactions with basic dyes as mucin does. 



See also Sussdorf {Deutsche Zeit. Thiermed., xiv, pp. 345, 349 ; 

 Zeit. wiss. Mik., vi, 1889, p. 205) ; Bizzozero {Atti. R. Accad. 

 di Sci. di Torino, 1889-92 ; reports in Zeit. wiss. Mik., vii, 1890, 

 p. 61 ; and ix, 1892, p. 219) ; also Unna {ibid., xiii, 1896, p. 42). 



The safranin reaction is not obtained with all brands of the dye ; 

 that of Bindschedler and Busch, in Bale, gives it, whilst safranin O 

 of Griibler does not. Unna employs chiefly polychrome methylen 

 blue. 



