COLLECTION OF BLOOD. 175 
stain, or by eosin and methylene blue used separately ; 
the parasites are stained pale blue and the corpuscles 
bright red. 
A simpler stain is that recommended by Rees (Prac- 
titioney, March, 1901) involving the use of carbol-thionin 
prepared by dissolving 1:5 grammes of thionin in 10 c.c. 
of absolute alcohol and 100 c.c. of a five per cent. 
solution of carbolic acid. This is to be kept for at least 
a fortnight and diluted with four times its bulk of dis- 
tilled water immediately before use. Staining is com- 
plete in about ten minutes. Ordinary carbol-thionin 
answers very well indeed. Thionin stains the red 
corpuscles a faint green, nuclei blue, and the parasites 
an intense purple. 
In a suspected case of malaria the search should not 
be abandoned in less than half an hour, or, in the case 
of an inexperienced observer, much longer. 
A fuller description of the parasite and the differences 
between the forms which are present in the various 
forms of the disease is beyond the scope of this work, 
and the reader is referred to the admirable special 
number of the Practitioney mentioned above. 
COLLECTION OF BLOOD FOR EXAMINA- 
TION BY CULTURAL METHODS. 
This is a much more difficult matter and should not 
be attempted unless and until the film method has 
failed. The difficulty arises from the abundant bac- 
terial flora of the skin; unless the most thorough 
antiseptic precautions have been taken the results are 
absolutely useless. ‘They are worse than useless, they are 
