818 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



solution of Bismarck brown or vesuvin in order to produce a double 

 staining. 



Permanent preparations have been kept for four months without 

 change in Canada balsam, xylol, or gelatin-glycerin. The whole 

 process takes a quarter of an hour, and the preparations may remain 

 for some days in clove-oil without losing their colour. The method 

 can also be applied to dry preparations, the cover-glass being treated 

 as a section. The following diseases were tested for Schizomycetes 

 by this method : — pneumonia cruposa, pyaemia, nephritis suppurativa, 

 arthritis suppurativa after scarlatina, multiple brain diseases, osteo- 

 myelitis, typhus, liver abscesses, erysipelas, tuberculosis, cattle dis- 

 temper, as well as the bacteria of putrefaction. After treatment with 

 iodine the following Schizomycetes remained coloured in alcohol : — 

 The cocci of crupose pneumonia, the Schizomycetes of pneumonia, 

 the cocci of the liver abscesses after perityphlitis, the cocci and small 

 bacilli in circumscribed infiltration of the lungs, the cocci of osteo- 

 myelitis, of arthritis suppurativa after scarlatina, of nephritis sup- 

 purativa after cystis, those of multiple brain abscesses, of erysipelas, 

 the bacilli of tubercular cattle distemper, and the Schizomycetes of 

 putrefaction. On the other hand, no staining was exhibited of the 

 capsular cocci in a case of crupose pneumonia, or of the capsules' 

 without cocci in another case, or of the bacilli of typhus. 



Staining Fluid for Sections of Tubercle-Bacilli.* — Dr. Klein 

 recommends a staining fluid devised by Weigert as yielding the 

 finest specimens of tubercle-bacilli in sections through tuberculous 

 growths that he has seen. The sections may be either fresh or 

 hardened. 



The fluid is prepared as follows:— Take a 2 per cent, aqueous 

 solution of gentian-violet 12 ccm., and of a saturated aqueous solution 

 of anilin oil 100 ccm. Mix. This is used like an ordinary staining 

 fluid for the first stain. For the second or contrast stain the 

 following solution is used : — Bismarck brown, 1 gr. ; spiritus vini 

 rectificati (sp. gr. -830), 10 ccm.; distilled water, 100 ccm._ The 

 sections remain in a few drops of this solution for fifteen minutes. 

 Dr. Klein states that the results obtained by this method are very 

 beautiful, the only drawback being the liability of the colour of the 

 bacilli to fade. 



Methods of Imbedding.f — Dr. J. Blochmann reviews the various 

 methods of imbedding, describing in detail those that have come into 

 general use, and pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of 

 each. 



In every method of imbedding the principle is the same, namely, 

 to saturate objects with substances which not only fill out the larger 

 internal cavities, but which also penetrate the tissues themselves, 



* ' Practitioner,' xxxiii. (1884) p. 35. Sci. Monthly, ii. (1884) p. 92. 



t Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Mikr., i. (1884) pp. 218-33 (2 figs.). The above taken 

 from one of Dr. C. O. Whitman's excellent abstracts, Amer. Natural., xviii. 

 (1884) pp. 842-4 (2 figs.). 



