SECTION SEVEN 



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 off 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 Treponema pallida and other spirochaetes 



Solutions required: 



A. Potassium permanganate 5% 



aqueous. 



B. Carbol fuchsin (Ziehl Neelsen) . . i volume 

 Distilled water . . . . • • 9 volumes 



Technique: 



1. Air-dried smears are fixed in rnethyl alcohol for five minutes. 



2. Immerse for three minutes in the potassium permanganate 

 solution. 



3. Wash with distilled water. 



4. Immerse in the diluted carbol fuchsin solution for two min- 



rites. 



353 



