52 CELLULAR STAINING, DEATH, ACHROMASIA 



When the lobes of the nuclei stain scarlet, the 

 chromatin network within them shows up well. The 

 blue coloration which precedes the scarlet one is due, 

 I think, to the staining of the nuclear wall. The 

 polychrome dye contains two stains, a red and a blue 

 one, and the nuclear wall seems to have an affinity 

 for the blue one, while the chromatin combines with 

 the red. The staining of the nucleus, therefore, is a 

 sign that the cell has died, and one now sees a circular 

 dead cell (in reality it is a spherical cell which has 

 become flattened out) with its granules stained scarlet, 

 and in their midst there is the polylobed nucleus, also 

 stained scarlet. Let the specimen be watched still 

 further. Gradually the cell-wall is seen to bulge out 

 in places (fig. 12), apparently away from the granules. 

 After a few moments this bulging becomes general 

 (fig. 13), and the cell presents a clear halo of cell-wall 

 and cytoplasm outside the limit of the mass of granules 

 in its centre. This is due to the gradual liquefaction of 

 the cytoplasm which occurs at death, beginning at the 

 periphery and progressing slowly towards the nucleus. 

 Sometimes a few stained granules appear to migrate by 

 the "dancing" Brownian movement into the liquid 

 cytoplasm which has bulged out the cell- wall. Under 

 suitable conditions the Brownian movement becomes 

 general, showing that all the cytoplasm has liquefied 

 a certain sign of death. 



No matter whether the cytoplasm has completely 

 liquefied or not, however, one of two things is bound 

 to happen after a short time. The granules and nucleus 

 may remain stained for half an hour or so, especially 



