ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
449 
by means of coarsely powdered Glauber’s salt. The block is fixed on 
with water-glass. The sections, which are cut dry, roll up a little, but 
are easily uncurled in water. Before staining, the soap should be washed 
out in frequent changes of water. 
Should it be desired to' orient the piece, the soap-mass may be ren- 
dered quite transparent by the addition of 5 ccm. of glycerin and of 
alcohol to 55 ccm. of the soap solution. 
Straightening of Paraffin Sections.* — Though Strasser’s adhesive is 
indisputably the best, says Dr. W. Gebhardt, it is liable to the incon- 
venience arising from the difficulty of straightening the section. This 
may be avoided by covering the adhesive layer with water. In this way 
the sections are easily located and straightened. The excess of water 
is poured off, and a somewhat longer time than usual allowed for its 
complete evaporation. 
(4) Staining: and Injecting:. 
Special Procedure for Staining Bacteria on Films and in Sections.t 
— The procedure recommended by Herren W. Semonowicz and E. Mar- 
zinowsky is intended to stain not only bacteria but histological elements. 
It consists in staining the preparations with an aqueous solution of 
phenolfuchsin, and after-staining them with Loeffler’s methylen-blue. 
The carbolfuchsin solution is composed of one part of the ordinary 
solution and two parts of water. Cover-glass preparations are placed 
for 2 minutes in the phenolfuchsin solution, washed in water, and then 
treated for 3-4 minutes with the methylen-blue solution. Sections are 
left in the phenolfuchsin solution for 4—5 minutes, and, after having 
been washed in water, stained with the methylen-blue solution for a 
similar time. The preparations are thereupon treated in the usual way 
with alcohol, oil, and xylol, and imbedded in balsam. By this method the 
cell-nuclei and bacteria are stained blue, while the connective tissue 
and the protoplasm of the cells become red or rose-coloured. The bac- 
teria are specially well stained by this procedure unless they are degene- 
rated, when they are of a reddish hue. 
Orcein Staining. J — Dr. H. Triepel stains elastin in small objects 
with the following solution, after removal from 70 per cent, spirit: — 
Orcein, O’ 5 grm. ; alcohol (70 per cent.), 70 ccm. ; hydrochloric acid, 
20 drops. The object, which should not be more than 2 mm. thick, is 
transferred after 24 hours to hydrochloric acid alcohol (alcohol 70 per 
cent., with 1 per cent, of acid) for about half an hour. After this the 
object must be dehydrated in absolute alcohol for about 12 hours. The 
next steps are xylol, followed by paraffin sections. 
Picrocarmine.§ — In an article discussing the merits of picrocarmine, 
Prof. P. Mayer gives the following formulae and their method of pre- 
paration. 
(1) Magnesia-carmine. Carmine 1 grm. and burnt magnesia 0 * 1 
grm. are boiled for 5 minutes with 20 ccm. of distilled water, and the 
* Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikr., xiv. (1897) pp. 39-40. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxi. (1897) pp. 874-6. 
X Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikr., xiv. (1897) pp. 31-2. § Tom. cit., pp. 18-31. 
2 i 2 
