PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



This book has been written because it is felt that there is an urgent 

 need of a practical manual dealing with all or most branches of 

 microscopic staining, entirely divorced from theory and general 

 statements. It has been the writer's experience that a great deal of 

 time is lost in searching through volumes of theory and general 

 statements in order to extract a particular staining method which, 

 even when found, may not be complete. 



It is hoped that this book will form a useful supplement to the 

 standard works on anatomy, bacteriology, biology, botany, 

 cytology, embryology, entomology, histology, mycology, path- 

 ology, veterinary science, zoology, etc. 



It should be pointed out that this book contains all the subject 

 matter, revised, rearranged and co-ordinated, of the writer's own 

 publications Microscopic Staining Techniques which were put out 

 in the form of three booklets. No. i, 2 and 3 as a temporary meas- 

 ure in an endeavour to meet the more pressing demands for infor- 

 mation on the application of microscopic stains. The booklets 

 attained a world-wide circulation and were in fact chosen by the 

 British Council for inclusion in their exhibits of British medical 

 books. The writer has since received many requests to incorporate 

 all three parts of Microscopic Staining Techniques into one and this 

 has been done in the present book, but with many additions. 



Many of the methods given here are standard, some are not so 

 well known, while others are unknown. 



In writing this book, references have been made to numerous 

 journals and standard works, chief of which were as follows : 



Stain Technology (Biotech Publication, Geneva, N.Y., U.S.A.). 

 Plant Microtechnique, by D. A. Johansen (McGraw-Hill, New 



York). 

 Handbook of Practical Bacteriology, by T. J. Mackie and J. E. 



McCartney (E. & S. Livingstone, Edinburgh). 

 McClung's Handbook of Microscopical Technique, edited by Ruth 



McClung Jones (Paul B. Hoebber,Inc., New York, 16, U.S.A.). 



