The Microscope. 85 



Anilin Blue-Black. — Dr. G. Jelgersma in defending anilin 

 blue- black from the attacks recently made upon it, recommends the 

 Epo-lish made dye, from which he has always obtained most satis- 

 factory results. 



1. The preparations are permanent; specimens exposed to full 

 daylight for over a year have not deteriorated. 



2. Anilin blue-black is specially adapted for nervous tissue, 

 axis-cylinders, ganglion-cells and their processes. In preparations 

 of the cortex cerebri et cerebelli, Purkinje's cells, with their pro- 

 cesses are seen branching as far as the periphery. Pathological 

 chano-es in the ganglion-cells are most easily observed in this stain. 

 The axis-cylinders become dark-blue and easiest recognized in verti- 

 cal section, although in oblique and parallel directions they are very 

 clear. Ganglion-cells become bright-blue; the nuclei and nucleoli 

 dark-blue, the processes as well as the cell-body being stained. 



3. Anilin blue-black is of no value for connective tissue and 

 the neuroglia; for these the author uses alum-cochineal hsematoxy- 

 lin, or the Bottchor-Hermann anilin -dye method. 



The staining is very simple. The author uses three watery 

 solutions, 1 in 100, 1 in 800, 1 in 2,000, which stain in four, live, 

 and twelve hours respectively. Then alcohol, oil, and balsam. 



5. Anilin blue-black tires the eyes much less than carmine, an 

 advantage not to be undervalued when a large number of serial sec- 

 tions are to be compared. — Journal B.. M. Society. 



Collecting Urinary Sediment for Microscopical Examination. 

 — Dr. Charles W. Dulles, in Medical Neivs: I am strongly im- 

 pressed with the advantage of allowing the sedimentation of a speci- 

 men to take place in a straight glass, and not in a conical one, as is 

 recommended in most of the books. In the latter, I think, one may 

 easily miss a few tube casts, because they are not heavy enough to 

 resist the attraction and friction of the sides of a conical glass, and 

 so never find their way to the bottom. For this purpose a test tabe 

 with a foot is the best receptacle. After leaving the urine to settle 

 in such a test tube for twenty-four hours under a paper cover 

 pressed down and around the top of the tube, I take a long, pointed 

 glass tube, close the upper end firmly with my finger, and, pushing 

 the point through the center of the paper cover of the test tube, 

 thrust it steadily to the bottom of the urine. I now remove my 

 finger, and the bottom layer of the urine, containing the deposit of 

 twenty-four hours, flows up into the long tube. When it has risen 

 to the level of the urine in the test tube, I carefully twist a piece of 



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