and Laboratory Methods. 1417 



recognized. On the contrary, the copper treatment brings out the blue green 

 crystals from the amorphous stained material and the entirely unstained normal 

 and abnormal neutral fat drops are very sharp. The smallest indication of dis- 

 ease can thus be detected microscopically. The author has found in a but 

 slightly affected pancreas entirely isolated necrotic fat cells, which were not to 

 be detected by any other method. e. j. c. 



Noeoske, H. EosinophileZellenund Knochen- The author considers the Staining 



mark, insbesondere bei chirurgischen In- technique for eosinophile cells to be 

 fectionskrankheiten und Geschwiilsten. . , , , ,i r n • 



Deutsche Zeitsch. fiir Chir., Bd. 55, 1900. very important and uses the followmg 



method : The organ to be investigated 

 is fixed 12 to 24 hours in 4 per cent, formol solution at body temperature, hard- 

 ened in alcohol and embedded in paraffin. Celloidin was not used. Fixation 

 in Mueller's fluid was less satisfactory ; better results came from 5 per cent, sub- 

 limate solution and Altmann's nitrous acid, fixing from a few minutes to 2 

 hours. The sections ; from 3 to 6 f.i thick, were stained with a 1 per cent, 

 aqueous solution of Gruebler's eosin for 2 to o minutes, rinsed with water and 

 counterstained with the following alkaline methylen blue : lithium carbonate, 

 cone. aq. sol. 5 pts., distilled water 80 pts., alcohol 10 pts., methylen blue 

 (cone. ale. sol.) 2 pts. This staining solution is poured abundantly over the 

 eosin stained sections ; it remains for a half minute or longer, according to the 

 method of fixing or thickness of the section, washed off with absolute alcohol, 

 cleared in xylol and mounted in balsam. In a section thus stained the radiating 

 structures about the tubercle bacilli, the granules in their immediate neighbor- 

 hood, the eosinophile cells, and in part the red blood cells, are all bright red, 

 while the rest of the tissue is bluish. The alkaline condition of the methylen 

 blue solution is necessary for this differentiation by the eosin. This seems im- 

 portant since weak neutral alcoholic or aqueous blue solutions remove the eosin 

 entirely from the section, which is not bound firmly as a tissue element. Lyons 

 blue has also been used, made as follows : 20 parts of a 1 per cent, aqueous 

 solution of Lyons blue with one drop of ofticinal solution of caustic potash boiled 

 about 5 minutes and diluted with 20 pts. of alcohol. In the same way 20 parts of a 

 Bismark brown solution mixed with a drop of caustic potash solution boiled about 

 5 minutes and diluted with 20 pts. alcohol. Thirty parts of the first standard 

 solution are mixed with 5 parts of No. 2, while shaking ; to this mixture are 

 added 25 pts. of alcohol and filled to 100 parts with distilled water. This 

 brownish-violet stain is used on the section with cautious warming, allowing steam 

 to form and then cooling slowly. The result of this is to give the sections a 

 brownish yellow tone, then the stain is washed off with acid alcohol (HCl.) 

 whereby the brownish color changes to a faint blue. This is followed by a care- 

 ful short wash with a mixture of equal parts of pure anilin, alcohol and distilled 

 water. The latter differentiating fluid should act only until the sections 

 appear a light brown; this at most takes but a few seconds. Washing in alcohol 

 follows ; clearing in xylol and mounting in balsam complete the process. Excel- 

 lent plates illustrate the granules of the eosinophile cells stained in this manner. 



E. J. c. 



