ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
175 
ture. He succeeded, however, by enveloping the Nauplii in pieces of 
cigarette paper. 
Rapid Method of Fixing and Staining Blood-Films.* — Dr. G. L. 
Gulland fixes and stains blood-films in the following way : — The covers 
are dropped film-side downwards into the fixative, which is composed of 
absolute alcohol saturated with eosin 25 ccm., ether 25 ccm., sublimate 
in absolute alcohol (2 grm. to 10 ccm.) 5 drops. After an immersion of 
three or four minutes, the covers are removed with forceps and washed 
in water. The film is then stained for just one minute in a saturated 
aqueous solution of methylen-blue, after which it is washed in water, 
dehydrated in absolute alcohol, and mounted. 
Modification of Heller’s Method of Staining Medullated Nerve- 
Fibres.f — Dr. W. F. Robertson first treats healthy or morbid nervous tissue 
with Weigert’s chrome-alum-copper fluid for ten days or longer. The 
fluid is composed of 2 • 5 per cent, chrome-alum, 5 per cent, copper acetate, 
5 per cent, acetic acid, and formalin 2 per cent. The chrome-alum 
is boiled in the required amount of water, and when dissolved the acetic 
acid and copper acetate are put in. When cold the solution is filtered 
and the formalin then added. The author has reduced the quantity from 
10 to 2 per cent., as too much formalin impairs the staining reaction. 
Sections of material may be obtained by the celloidin or gum-freezing 
method, and they are stained by placing them in 1 per cent, osmic acid 
for half an hour in the dark, then in 5 per cent, pyrogallic acid for half an 
hour, 0 * 25 per cent, potassium permanganate for 3-4 minutes, 1 per cent, 
oxalic acid for 3-5 minutes. Wash in water after treatment with each 
solution, dehydrate, then mount in balsam. 
Staining Coccidium oviforme.J — Dr. R. Abel stains Coccidium ovi- 
forme with the Ziehl-Neelsen solution for tubercle bacilli. The parasites 
may be stained on cover-glasses, or in sections. After staining with hot 
phenol-fuchsin, the preparations are to be decolorised in 5 per cent, 
sulphuric acid and 70 per cent, alcohol. Any contrast stain may be 
used. 
Method for Staining Unnucleated Cells.§— Herr J. J. Gerassimotf 
states that if a Sjpirogyra cell be treated with chloroform, ether, or with 
chloral hydrate during fission, two daughter-cells will be obtained, one 
being devoid of nuclear substance, the other containing excess thereof, 
i.e. there is one large nucleus or two of ordinary size ; in fact, the results 
are exactly the same as those induced by the action of a low temperature. 
To 100 ccm. of the water containing the algas were added 0 • 25—1 • 5 ccm, 
of saturated chloral hydrate solution, or 0-42-2*5 ccm. of ether, or 
1 • 25-7 -5 ccm. chloroform water. The time required varied from fifteen 
minutes to some hours, after which the algte were removed to fresh 
water. 
New Method of Staining Tubercle Bacilli. ||— Drs. A. Rondelli and 
L. Buscalioni propose the following method for staining tubercle bacilli, 
which they say is extremely rapid and simple : — The decoloriser is a 
* Brit. Med. Journ., 1897, i. p. 652. f Tom. cit., pp. 651-2. 
% Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., l te Abt., xx. (1896) pp. 904-5. 
§ Moscow, 1896, 4 pp. 
11 See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk , l te Abt., xxi. (1897) pp. 70-1. 
