THE CARMINE PROCESS. 61 



may now consider the chief facts and observations on 

 which this theory is founded. The carmine-staining 

 process may be first noticed, as it has, in addition to 

 its own importance, the historical interest of having 

 led the mind of Dr. Beale to his great discovery. 



The discovery of the carmine-staining, which has borne such 

 important fruits, appears to be due to Lord S. G. Osborne, and it 

 was made known by him in a memoir read before the Micro- 

 scopical Society, in June, 1856, and published in the fifth 

 volume of the " Journal of Microscopical Science." In this he 

 says, " It was the desire to trace out this feature of cell growth 

 [formation of spongiole cells from protoplasm], which led me to 

 seek the means of giving colour to the formative matter. To 

 my delight, I now found that, whilst the mass would take up 

 or involve the pigment, the actual cell walls and epidermic 

 plasm would not" (p. 112). He states that the "formative 

 matter," under which term he includes " granular and mole- 

 cular matter," embodied in a thick, transparent fluid, may be 

 coloured, and that it is this which effects the various combina- 

 tions of cell contents ; but he is not sure that the staining is 

 uniform in this, or proceeds from some very minute, highly- 

 coloured granules. He observes also that the nuclei were more 

 highly coloured, and says, " Under every feature of cell growth, 

 the nuclei and the aggregations of formative matter which 

 tend to nucleolar growth, will always be found to present a 

 much deeper colour than the formative matter in the same cell 

 with them "(p. 114). His plate exhibits the staining of the 

 protoplasm and nucleus of the cells of the spongioles of the 

 wheat-root, and is very like what we are now familiar with. In 

 one place, also, there is exhibited the closely set stained masses 

 of the newly-formed portion ; while higher up in the same 

 rootlet the cells are oblong, and nearly colourless, with a single 

 deeply-coloured nucleus. The mode of staining was by letting 

 the wheat-plant grow in spring water coloured with carmine. 

 We see, thus, that this author makes a considerable step in 

 advance in the protoplasmic theory, but he did not reach 



