3i6 STAINING AND PERMANENT MOUNTING [ CH. X 



tissue red, muscle, blood and epithelia yellow or yellowish. Arter- 

 ies are excellent for this combination. 



470. Combined Elastic, Mucicarmin and Picro-Fuch- 

 sin Stain. For this, one should take some object that is known to 

 contain elastic tissue, mucus, white fibrous tissue and muscle. 

 (The non-cartilaginous part of the trachea is excellent.) The organ 

 should have been fixed in mercuric chlorid or Zenker's fluid 

 ( 416, 429) for this preparation. The sections should be made 

 by the paraffin method ( 439) and no collodion should be used for 

 fastening the sections to the slide ( 450) for collodion is stained by 

 mucicarmin. 



(1) Stain first in the elastic stain i hour. Wash well with 

 95% alcohol and then with water. 



(2) Stain in a shell vial or jar of mucicarmin ( 389) from i 

 to 24 hours. Wash well with water, but one must be careful in 

 treating these sections as they have no collodion mantle to protect 

 them. 



(3) Stain 15 to 30 seconds with picro-fuchsin of ^ strength 

 ( 469). Dehydrate with 95% and if necessary absolute alcohol. 

 Clear in carbol-xylene and mount in acid balsam ( 387). The 

 elastic tissue will be black or blue black. Mucus will be carmin or 

 rose red, white fibrous tissue will be magenta red, muscle, epithe- 

 lium and blood will be yellow. 



EOSIN METHYLENE BLUE STAINING 



471. Eosin Methylene Blue. One of the best objects for 

 this stain is a hemolymph gland. Such a gland is easily and surely 

 found by a beginner if he takes the heart and lungs of a veal. In 

 the fat around the heart and behind the pleura will be found red 

 bodies looking almost like blood clots. Remove carefully, fix in 

 Zenker's fluid or mercuric chlorid, ( 416, 429). Section by the 

 paraffin method, make the sections 5yu and lOyu thick. Use collo- 

 dion for ensuring the fixation to the slide ( 450). Stain the 

 sections 5 minutes in alcoholic eosin ( 402). Wash off the eosin 

 stain with water. (This is an exception to the generalization in 

 461, 2.) 



Stain in methyleue blue ( 417) /^ to 5 minutes. Rinse well 

 in tap water. Dehydrate with neutral 95% alcohol ( 380) and 



