116 PREPARING PERMANENT SECTIONS, ETC. 



and, above all, the poor staining quality of the sections — are done 

 away with. 



From the formalin solution the section is carried directly into 

 a 4 per cent, alum-carmine solution, and left three to five minutes, 

 staining a deep red (4 g. carmine boiled three-quarters of an hour 

 in 100 g. 5 per cent, aqueous alum solution, cooled, filtered). For 

 transporting the sections from one liquid to another up to abso- 

 lute alcohol, a glass rod is used, about which the section is rolled, 

 obtaining a flat and even specimen much more quickly and con- 

 veniently than with a spatula. 



The formalin section hardening and immediate carmine stain- 

 ing are emphasised as being the essential points of the method, 

 distinguishing it from others more or less similar.* 



The section taken from the carmine solution is rinsed in pure 

 water to remove the superfluous stain, using the glass rod as before, 

 and then dehydrated by bringing it for fifteen seconds each into 

 80 per cent, alcohol and absolute alcohol. Finally, it is placed in 

 xylol carbol to clarify, and mounted and conserved in Canada 

 balsam. The unused sections and uncut material may be preserved 

 indefinitely in 80 per cent, alcohol, and subsequently stained or 

 embedded by any method, exactly as with primary alcohol 

 hardening. 



With us the questions most frequently to be decided by micro- 

 scopical diagnosis are : — Malignancy or benignancy of tumours, 

 ulcers, etc. These are answered as efficiently and positively by 

 preparations obtained by this rapid method as could possibly be 

 obtained in any other way. Every one using the method will be 

 convinced of the exactness and distinctness with which the 

 preparations show the proliferation and change of form of epithe- 

 lium, abnormalities in number and development of glands, typical 

 and atypical gland forms, decidual cells, placental residua, etc. 

 Naturally, this procedure, which has been tested by us only in 

 gynaecological practice, would seem equally suitable for use in 

 other fields where a quick anatomico-pathological diagnosis is 

 required, and we hope that its wider use will confirm this view. 



*T. D. Calluis, Centralb. f. allgem. path. u. Path. Anat., 1895. 



