ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
757 
In this simple way the flagella of many bacteria may be effectively 
stained, though the pictures are perhaps not so striking as by Loeffler’s 
method. 
Spore-staining after Maceration.* — Prof. P. Ernst reports some 
researches made by Dr. Kinscherf on the staining of spores after mace- 
rating the preparations. The basis of the method presupposes that the 
difficulty of staining spores depends on the thickness and impenetrability 
of the spore membrane and not on any special characters of the spore 
plasma. By maceration this resistance may be overcome. The methods 
adopted are given very curtly, e. g. Bac. subtilis 13-15 minutes in 5 per 
cent, chromic acid, water, 18 hours in gentian-violet-anilin-water, 
2-3 minutes in Lugol’s solution. Gunther’s acid alcohol, 96 per cent, 
alcohol, water, Bismarck brown. An excellent contrast stain. Potato 
bacillus, 18 minutes in 5 per cent, chromic acid, 18 hours in Ehrlich’s 
solution, &c. Eoot bacillus, 15 minutes in 5 per cent, chromic acid, &c. 
Mesentericus vulgaris , 30 minutes in 5 per cent, chromic acid, &c. An- 
thrax, 23 minutes 5 per cent, chromic acid, 18 hours Ehrlich’s solution, 
33 per cent. HN0 3 ( = tubercle stain). Also by Giinther-Gram and 
thirdly by Lustgarten, 5 seconds in 5 per cent, permanganate of potash, 
3 seconds in aqueous solution of sulphurous acid. Anthrax cultivations 
showing many free spores, were macerated from 18 to 20 hours in 
chromic acid, and afterwards treated with aqueous fuchsin solution, or 
with Bismarck brown. In such preparations the spores were stained in 
a short time. 
Staining Micro-organisms in the Blood.t — M. H. Vincent adopts 
the following procedure for staining micro-organisms in blood prepara- 
tions. The blood-film is prepared in the usual way, and then the cover- 
glass is treated for 1/2-2 minutes with the following mixture : — 5 per 
cent, carbolic acid 6*0; saturated salt solution 30*0; glycerin 30 • 0. 
The solution is to be filtered. This fluid dissolves the haemoglobin, 
does not alter the shape of the red corpuscles and causes no precipitate. 
The fluid is drained off, and the preparation after having been washed 
in distilled water is stained with carbol-methylen-blue plus 1-2 per 
cent, aqueous methyl-violet solution. 
This method is also useful for showing the malaria plasmodia. 
(5) Mounting:, including: Slides, Preservative Fluids, &c. 
Production of Artefacts by certain Fixatives.^ — Dr. A. P. Ohl- 
macher in a critique of the Sporozoan theory of malignant neoplasms 
from a micro-technical standpoint, records his experience of different 
fixatives, followed by different stains, on the Mvxosporidia found in the 
kidney tubules of toads. These Sporozoa are only found in the spore 
form, exist in great numbers in the renal tubules, and are excellently 
adapted for controlling the results obtained from cancerous tumours. 
The author found that solutions containing chromic acid or osmic acid 
are unsuited for the preservation of Myxosporidia, while absolute alcohol 
and Carnoy’s chloroform-acetic alcohol gave excellent results. Corrosive 
sublimate, while fixing and hardening well, is a little inconvenient 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xvi. (1891) pp. 182-1. 
f Gaz. Med. de Paris, 1891, p. 296. % Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc., June 30, 1891. 
1894 3 F 
