652 SUMMARY OF CUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Myrtillus for Staining Animal and Vegetable Tissues.*— Dr. M. 



Lavdowsky (in furtherance of the modern fashion of recommending 

 every conceivable substance which by any chance will furnish a 

 stain) recommends the berries of Vaccinum myrtillus, as an excellent 

 staining agent for the nuclei of all cells and the cellulose walls of 

 plant-cells. The karyokinetic figures are shown very plainly. 



The fresh berries should be well washed in water, the juice 

 squeezed out and mixed with two volumes of distilled water, to 

 which some alcohol (90 per cent.) has been added. It is then heated 

 for a short time, and filtered warm. For use, a small quantity of 

 the fluid should be diluted with two or three times its bulk of dis- 

 tilled water. 



The stain gives a red (carmine) colour with fresh neutral objects, 

 or lilac (htematoxylin) when the acid of the fluid is neutralized by 

 an alkali or neutral salt. The latter is the more durable. A double 

 stain is obtained by placing the object in a solution of eosin after 

 treatment with the lilac stain. Directions are given for applying the 

 fluid, but it does not appear to us, from the author's own showing, 

 to be a valuable or even useful addition to the already long list of 

 staining agents. 



Hartzell's Method of Staining Bacillus tuberculosis.f — A small 

 quantity of sputum is spread as thinly and evenly as possible upon a 

 slide, and allowed to dry, and is then passed slowly several times 

 through the flame of an alcohol lamp or Bunsen burner. One or two 

 drops of the fuchsin solution recommended by Gradle (prepared as 

 follows : carbolic acid 15 minims, distilled water 1/2 fluid oz,, 

 dissolve, and add saturated alcoholic solution of fuchsin 1/2 fluid dr.) 

 are placed upon the sputum, and allowed to remain from three to five 

 minutes. The slide is now washed thoroughly with distilled water, 

 to remove the excess of fuchsin, and the stained sputum completely 

 decolorized by a saturated solution of oxalic acid. It is again 

 thoroughly washed in distilled water, and allowed to dry ; it is now 

 ready to be mounted in glycerin or balsam for examination. With a 

 power of 500 or 600 the bacilli will appear as brilliant red rods, no 

 staining of the background being necessary. 



One chief advantage claimed over other methods is that in the 

 latter the decolorizing agent employed is dilute nitric acid ; but this, 

 besides being disagreeable to handle because of its corrosive and 

 staining properties, is apt to remove the colour from the bacilli too, 

 unless great care is taken. Oxalic acid, however, seems to leave the 

 dye untouched in them. 



Safranin Staining for Pathological Specimens.l— For staining 

 tumours. Dr. V. Babes(in) recommends that fine sections of tissue 

 hardened in alcohol or chromic acid should be steeped either in a 

 solution of safranin which has been dissolved in warm water, or in a 

 mixture of equal parts of concentrated watery and concentrated 



* Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., xxiii. (1884) pp. 506-8. 



t Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., v. (1884) pp. 76-7, from ' Medical Times.' 



X Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., xxii, (1883) pp. 356-65. 



