NON-DECALCIFIED BONE. 345 



and HERZHEIMER, see the paper by MARTINOTTI in Zeit. f. wiss.' 

 Mik.,iv, 1, 1887, p. 31. 



LUSTGARTEN'S process, which is simple, and gives very good 

 results, consists in fixing with mixture of Flemming for 

 twenty-four or forty-eight hours, washing with water, harden- 

 ing with alcohol, making sections, and staining for twenty- 

 four hours in alcoholic solution of Victoria diluted with 2 to 

 4 parts of water (see 100). The colour used by him was 

 called " Victoriablau 4 B," and this is probably an important 

 detail. The sections are washed, treated with alcohol, and 

 mounted in balsam. I believe it is essential that they should 

 have been fixed in an osmic or chromic mixture ; or if fixed 

 with alcohol, they should be mordanted with chromic acid or 

 osmium before staining. 



But perhaps the best method is that of MARTINOTTI (1. c.). 

 Fix in a chromic liquid, wash, stain for forty-eight hours in 

 strong (5 per cent. Pfitzner's) solution of safranin, wash, 

 dehydrate, clear, and mount in balsam. Elastic fibres are 

 stained of an intense black, the rest of the preparation show- 

 ing the usual characters of a safranin stain. 



The staining will be performed quicker if it be done at the temperature of 

 an incubating stove (GBIESBACH, ibid., iv, 1887, p. 442). And FEBBIA 

 (ibid., v, 3 S 1888, p. 342) says that clearer preparations will be obtained if 

 the sections be left for a long time, say twenty-four hours, in the alcohol, or 

 be treated for a short time with very dilute alcoholic solution of caustic 

 potash. This decolourises more completely the ground of the preparations. 



For another somewhat complicated method of MABTINOTTI'S, with nitrate 

 of silver, which is, I think, of more theoretical than practical interest, see 

 Zeit.f. wiss. Mik., v, 4, 1888, p. 521. 



For the methods of UNNA and TAENZEE with nitrate of rosanilin salts, 

 see Monatsch.f. prakt. Dermat, vi, 1887 ; or BEHEENS, KOSSEL, u. SCHIEF- 

 FERDECKER, Das Mikroslcop, 1, p. 204. 



689. Bone, Non-Decalcified (RANVIER, Traite, p. 297). 

 Ranvier points out certain precautions that it is necessary to 

 take in the preparation of sections of dry bone. In general, 

 the bones furnished by " naturalists," or procured in ana- 

 tomical theatres, contain spots of fatty substance that prevent 

 good preparations from being made. Such spots are formed 

 when bones are allowed to dry before being put into water 

 for maceration ; when a bone is left to dry the fat of the 

 medullary canals infiltrates its substance as fast as its water 

 evaporates. 



