342 SUMMARY or CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The author's main object was the examination of the colls of 

 tubercle for whicli the chromic acid process was found unsuitable. 

 If it is desired to examine the bacilli at the same time, the sections 

 should first be placed for 24 hours in a dilute alcoholic solution of 

 methyl-violet and then treated with the fuchsin and methyl-bluo. 

 The bacilli are stained blue, and the karyokinctic figures an intense 

 red. It is advisable to leave the sections only 5-10 minutes in the 

 fuchsin and 5-40 seconds in the methyl-blue ; if left longer in the 

 fuchsin the bacilli lose their stain. 



Ribesin and Eosin.* — Prof. H. Fol, after expressing and throwing 

 away the juice of black currants {Bihes nigrum), boils the skins for 

 some hours in 10 per cent, alum solution. The resulting deep violet 

 solution may conveniently be diluted with water, and after the lapse 

 of a day should be filtered, and may then be used for staining. 



The stain resembles in its efiect that of Boehmer's hfematoxylin, 

 but is a still more precise nuclear stain. It is a bright, somewhat 

 greenish blue, agreeable, distinct, and permanent. Alcohol objects 

 stain quicker than chromic acid ones, but the most suitable of all are 

 bichromate objects. 



A ribesin stain may be followed by eosin-staining, or a double 

 stain may be at once obtained by adding a little eosin to the above 

 ribesin solution and filtering (the filtrate should be cherry red). 

 Wash out with alcohol charged with a little eosin, and clear with 

 clove oil also charged with eosin. The blue of the ribesin remains 

 fixed in the nuclei. In many respects this is a better double stain 

 than Eenaut's hsematoxylic eosin. 



Plaut's Staining Process for the Demonstration of Saprogenous 

 and Pathogenous Micro-organisms.t — H. Plant tabulates the methods 

 of investigation for the various micro-organisms ; instructions for the 

 examination, choice, and treatment of the material, the production 

 and treatment of the preparations, the best staining reagents and their 

 action, methods of preservation, &c. In the case of the pathogenous 

 Schizomycetes, the difierent methods are described, for each species, 

 of the various investigators, Koch, Friedlander, Weigert, &c. .The 

 sections are as follows : — A. Saprogenous Schizomycetes : in fluids ; 

 in and upon solid substances, B. Pathogenous Schizomycetes: in 

 Ihe blood ; in organs ; micrococci in Area Celsi ; Leptothrix hiiccalis ; 

 Lepra ; bacillus of cattle-disease ; pneumonia-cocci ; recurrent spiro- 

 chaete ; bacillus of glanders ; tubercular bacilli ; typhus bacilli. C. 

 Gregarina — moulds, &c, : gregarina ; favus and Oidium lactis ; 

 Actinomyces. 



Staining the Spores of Bacillus tuberculosis-l— A. F. Negri 

 describes a method he has found successful for staining either the 

 spores of Bacillus tuberculosis or the organism itself : — 



1. Powdered carmine, gr. 0*5; strong ammonia, cc. 1; distilled 



♦ Fol, H., 'Lehrbuch d. vergl. Mikr. Anatomie,' 1884, pp. 183 and 196. See 

 Lee's Microtomists' Vade Mecum, 1885, p. 402. 



t Plaut, H., ' Farbung's-Methoden zum Nachweis der f aulniss-erregenden u. 

 pathogenen Mikro-organismen.' 2nd ed., 32 pp. 8vo, Leipzig, 1884. 



+ Jonrn. de Miorogr., viii. (1884) pp. 349-r)l. From ' Lo Sperimentale.' 



