154 COMBINATION STAINS. 



Combinations having Carmine for a Primary Stain. 



237. Picro-carmine. Picro-carmine is a double stain, if 

 care be taken not to wash out the picrin beyond the point 

 desired. 



238. Borax-carmine and Pier o- Car mine. A. very beautiful 

 and precise ^double stain may be obtained by means of this 

 combination. I add to a watch-glassful of Grenacher's 

 alcoholic borax-carmine a few drops of picro-carmine. 



The mixture will precipitate in the course of a few hours, 

 but the stain will be obtained nevertheless. 

 BAUMGARTEN'S borax-picro-carmine ( 171). 



239. Carmine and Picric Acid. This combination has been 

 already sufficiently explained above (see 236). 



LEGAL' s and GILSON'S alum- carmine and picric acid mixture 

 ( 157). 



Either of these combinations may be further combined with 

 haematoxylin, giving very rich differentiations. The stain 

 referred to by BOLSIUS in La Cellule, viii, 1, 1891, p. 6, should 

 be understood to be obtained by means of a mixture of equal 

 parts of haematoxylin solution and alum -carmine, followed by 

 treatment with picric acid, and not by means of hasmatoxylin 

 and picric acid alone, as reported in Journ. Roy. Mic. Soc., 

 1891, p. 828, which would not give the colorations there 

 described. 



240. Orth's Picro-lithium Carmine. See the place quoted, 166. I 

 consider the stain to be superfluous. 



241. Seller's Carmine followed by Indigo-Carmine (Am. Quart. 

 Mic. Journ., i, 1879, p. 220 ; Journ. Roy. Mic. Soc., ii, 1879, p. 613). 

 Stain in borax-carmine, wash out with HC1 alcohol, wash out the acid, and 

 after-stain in an extremely dilute alcoholic solution of indigo-carmine. 



I find this method gives good results when applied to sections, but very 

 bad results if it be attempted to stain in the mass with the indigo. The 

 indigo over-stains the superficial layers before it has penetrated to the deeper 

 layers. The method may be considered to be superseded by the carmine and 

 anilin blue method, infra, 243, which is more convenient. 



242. Merkel's Carmine and Indigo-Carmine in One Stain 

 KEL, Unters. a. d. anat. Anst. Rostock, 1874 ; Month. Mic. Journ., 1877, 

 pp. 242 and 317). 



(A) Take 2 grms. of carmine, 8 grms. of borax, and 128 c.c. of water (or half 

 a drachm of carmine, two drachms of borax, and four ounces of water). Rub 



