ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
287 
When sufficiently decolorized (two to three hours) the sections are 
thoroughly washed and then mounted in balsam. 
For staining sections with carmine, the author uses a stain made as 
follows : — Powdered carmine is boiled for two to four hours in 10 per 
cent, acetic acid ; for every 100 ccm. of acetic acid, 2 grm. of carmine are 
required. After cooling, the solution is filtered. In this acetic carmine 
the sections are immersed for twenty-four hours, after which they are 
decolorized in the lithium and prussiate of potash solution. As this 
is rapidly effected, the sections must be, at the proper moment, removed 
to distilled water and thoroughly washed therein, after which they are 
mounted in the usual manner. 
Kultschitzky’s Nerve-stain.* — Dr. J. Schaffer relates his experience 
of this method and his improvement thereon. This consisted in remov- 
ing some of the stain from sections over-coloured in acetic-haematoxylin 
by means of borax-ferrid cyanide of potassium solution. As to the 
previous preparation of the tissue by means of chromic acid, Erlicki’s 
or Muller’s fluid, Schaffer explains that the myelin of the medullary 
nerves has the strongest affinity for chromic acid and its salts, that in 
washing out there is a stage at which the chromic acid or salt has been 
removed from all the tissnes except the medullary sheaths of the nerves, 
and that this is the moment for staining with haematoxylin. 
Staining the Motor Nerve-cells of Torpedo. t—G. Magini, in 
studying the different positions of the caryoplasma and of the nucleolus 
in motor nerve-cells, obtained the best results in an examination of the 
electric lobes of the Torpedo by staining with Weigert’s haematoxylin, 
after- staining with safranin, and then decolorizing with ferrocyanide 
of potash, and also by staining with methylen-blue in 1/10,000 KHO, and 
after-staining with safranin. The latter method produced especially 
fine preparations, the body of the cell being violet, the caryoplasma red, 
and the nucleolus blue. 
Fixing and Staining Glands of Triton helveticus.J— M. Heiden- 
hain, in studying the histology of the cloaca and its glandular adnexa in 
the Triton, proceeded as follows: — Fixing was best done in picric acid 
or concentrated sublimate solution. For hardening, alcohol gradually 
increasing in strength until it became absolute. The specimens were 
stained with alum- carmine, and then treated with picric acid-alcohol, or 
aqueous solution of pure hsematoxylin, and then mordanted with 1/2 to 1 
per cent, alum solution. 
When stained in sections stuck on with alcohol, or by Schallibaum’s 
method, anilin dyes, acid fuchsin, methyl-green, orange were used, and 
these combinations with sublimate fixation produced excellent results. 
Fixing, Staining, and Preserving the Cell-elements of Blood.§ 
— Dr. H. Griesbach deals chiefly with the blood of Mollusca, although 
a few remarks are devoted to the blood-corpuscles of Yertebrata. As a 
fixative, the author has the highest opinion of the value of osmic acid. 
* Auat. Auzcig., v. (1890) pp. 643-5. 
f Atti R. Accad. dei Lincei Roma, vi. (1890) pp. 466-7 (2 figs.). See Zeitschr. 
f. Wiss. Mikr., vii. (1890) p. 356. 
X Arch. f. Mikr. Anal, xxxv. (1890) pp. 173-274 (4 pis.). See Zeitschr. f. Wiss. 
Mikr., vii. (1890) pp. 356-7. § Zeitschr. f. Wiss, Mikr., vii. (1890) pp. 326-32. 
