388 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec, 



MICROSCOPICAL MANIPULATION. 



The Staining and Mounting of Tube Casts and other 

 Organic Urinary Deposits.-Bramwell (British Medical Jour- 

 nal No. 1, 749, p. 9.) makes the following useful suggestions for 

 the study of urinary sediments. An ordinary conical urine- 

 glass is filled with equal })arts of urine and an aqueous solution 

 of boric acid, and set aside until the deposit settles. This is 

 then removed by means of a pipette and transferred to an or- 

 dinary test tube containing about half a drachm of a solution 

 of picrocarmin, and the two are thoroughly mixed and set asidt! 

 for 24 hours. Some of the sediment is then removed by means 

 of a fine mouthed pipette, and mounted. If there i.'^ reason to 

 suspect the existence of amyloid disease of the kidney, a solu- 

 tion methyl-violet may be used instead of that of picrocarmin. 

 In order to bring out the fine details of the tube-casts stained 

 in manner described, and in order to preserve them as per- 

 manent preparation, they may be mounted in Farrant's solu- 

 tion, consisting of gum arable and distilled water, each four 

 parts, and glycerin, two parts, with a little cam])hor. A small 

 test-tube is filled three-quarters with this solution and in it is 

 placed, by means of a fine mouthed pipette; the stained deposit 

 from the test-tube containing the mixture of urine and solution 

 of picrocarmin. The smaller tube is securely corked, inverted 

 two or three times in order to facilitate thorough mixture, and 

 put aside until the sediment has time to settle. In the course 

 of three or four days a minute drop of the deposit is removed 

 from the bottom of the tube by means of a fine mouthed pipette 

 and placed upon a slide and covered. The preparation nny, in 

 the course of a few days, be sealed in the ordinary manner. If 

 the prepartion thus mounted is overstained with the solution of 

 picrocarmin, the deposit should be transferred to fresh Farrant's 

 solution. Any organic urinary deposits may, of course, be 

 stained, mounted, and preserved in the same manner. 



BACTERIOLOGY. 



The Bacillus of the Chinese Bubonic Plague. — The 

 Lancet for Aug. 25, contains an article on this subject by Pro- 

 fessor S. Kitasato, who gives an interesting account of this dis-: 



