478 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Fixation of Paraffin Sections with Distilled Water/ — Prof. J. 
Nusbaum praises highly the method of fixing paraffin sections with dis- 
tilled water, a method which for its simplicity, elegance, and satisfactory 
results deserves to be more widely known and practised. The slide is 
covered wfith distilled or spring water, evenly spread by means of a glass 
rod. The sections, even large series of sections, are then placed on the 
water and the slide held over a spirit-lamp until the sections are stretched 
out and look quite smooth, without a trace of a crease or a fold. Care 
of course must be taken that the paraffin does not melt. The water is 
now poured off, and in doing so the sections may be held by a needle 
and afterwards arranged if necessary. The slides are then placed in the 
vertical position under a bell jar for 24-36 hours to get rid of all the 
water. After this the paraffin is dissolved out in xylol, and the sections 
washed in alcohol, stained, cleared up, and imbedded. By this pro- 
cedure certainty in keeping the sections fixed to the slide is attainable. 
Method for Impregnating the Lacunae and Canaliculi of Bone 
with Fuchsin. j - — Herr M. Buprecht has by the following method been 
able to confirm and extend the views of Banvier relative to the recurrent 
canaliculi of bone. A piece of dry well-macerated bone is filed down to 
a thickness of 0*3 mm., and the sides scraped with a scalpel to remove 
the dust. The section is next immersed in ether for some minutes, and 
after removal heated quickly on a slide and plunged while hot into 
ether again. The section is then transferred to a boiling saturated 
alcoholic solution of diamond-fuchsin for five minutes. After cooling 
down to 34° the staining solution is evaporated to dryness at 70°. The 
pigment is then scraped off with a knife, and the section is ground 
between two glass plates with pumice-stone in vaselin-oil and benzin 
1 to 10. It is next further smoothed down on an Arkansas stone with 
vaselin-oil and benzin. After washing off the benzin, the specimen is 
dried, and polished between pieces of writing-paper. Finally, it is 
mounted in colophonium dissolved in benzol. 
New Jung Microtome. £ — Dr. L. Koch describes the new Jung micro- 
tome and gives practical hints for its use in preparing botanical sections. 
The instrument in its new form does not differ in principle from the 
microtome described in this Journal, 1893, p. 264. 
(4) Staining- and Injecting-. 
Staining Flagella. § — Dr. Y. A. Moore stained the flagella of bacilli 
by Loeffler’s method with, modifications. As a mordant he used a 
20 per cent, solution of tannic acid 10 ccm., a cold saturated solution 
of iron sulphate 5 ccm., and a saturated alcoholic solution of fuchsin 
1 ccm. As a staining fluid, he used Ziehl’s carbol fuchsin ; 1 grm. of 
fuchsin is dissolved in 10 ccm. of absolute alcohol, to which 100 ccm. 
of a 5 per cent, solution of carbolic acid is added. In making the cover- 
glass preparation, a large drop of warm water was placed upon each 
slide by means of a sterile pipette ; the point of a sterile platinum wire 
* Anat. Anzeig., xii. (1896) pp. 52-4. 
t Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikr., xiii. (1896) pp. 21-31 (2 pis.). 
X Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., xxix. See Zeitschr. f. angewandte Mikr., i. (1896) 
pp. 373-5. § Proc. Amer. Micr. Soc., xvi. (1895) pp. 220-2. 
