ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
237 
The sections show the same staining as is produced by Marchi’s 
method, but the normal tissue is clearer, and in consequence the de- 
generated parts stand out more clearly, and are easily recognised with 
the naked eye. 
New Blood Stain.* * * § — Mr. L. H. Prince obtains excellent results 
from the following mixture : — Saturated solution of toluidin blue 24 
parts ; saturated solution of acid fuchsin 1 part ; 2 per cent, solution 
of acid eosin 2 parts. The solutions are made with distilled water, and 
the ingredients mixed in the order given. Only the supernatant fluid 
is used. When fresh, the solution stains in 30-60 seconds, but after 
10-12 weeks 5-7 minutes are required to get a good result. The 
films are better fixed by heat than by sublimate solution or by the 
alcohol-ether mixture. 
Method for Staining Bacterial Capsules.f — Herr Kaufmann re- 
commends the following procedure for staining capsules of bacteria. 
Stain for some hours at a moderate temperature, or for 2 hours at 
35°, with Loeffler’s methylen-blue. Wash in water which has been made 
alkaline with a few drops of strong caustic potash or caustic soda. Care- 
fully dry the preparation, and then treat with 0*5 per cent, nitrate of 
silver solution. Wash in alkali-water. Stain for 30 seconds in fuchsin 
solution (1 vol. saturated alcoholic solution to 20 vol. distilled water). 
Wash in alkalised water. Dry, and mount in balsam. 
Occasionally, capsules may be stained if the silver nitrate be omitted ; 
and 0-25 per cent, sulphate of copper solution acting for one minute also 
effects the staining of capsules, but there is no contrast. The important 
point in the process is the washing in alkalised water. The microbes 
treated were Micrococcus tetragenus , Pneumococcus lanceolatus , Bacillus 
Pneumonise Friedlaender , Bacillus capsulatus Pfeiffer, and Bacillus 
Anthracis. The advantages claimed for this method are (1) the con- 
trast staining, the bacterial body being blue and the capsule red ; 
(2) the permanence of the preparations. 
Staining Gonorrhoeal Secretion with Anilin Mixtures. :j: — Herr 
Lanz gives the following mixture for staining Gonococcus. It is com- 
posed of thionin and fuchsin ; the gonococci pick up the thionin, the 
cell-protoplasm the fuchsin, while the nuclei are stained with a mixture 
of the two. The solution must be made fresh each time. The solutions 
are saturated ones in 2 per cent, carbolic acid, and are mixed in the propor- 
tion of 4 thionin to 1 fuchsin. A quarter of a minute is usually suffi- 
cient for staining ; the preparation is decolorised by washing in water. 
Staining Nerve-tissue with Gold.§ — Herr S. Apathy has stained 
nervous tissue for some years by the following method. He has used 
gold compounds before and after the fixation of the tissue. In the first 
or fore-staining method, fresh tissue is placed in the dark in 1 per cent, 
solution of aurum chloratum flavum ( AuC 1 4 H -f- 4 H 2 0) for 2-24 hours. 
* Micr. Bull., xv. (1898) pp. 42-3. 
f Hyg. Rundschau, 1898, No. 18. See Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxv. 
(1899) p. 32. 
t Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., 1898, No. 40. See Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par. 
l te Abt., xxv. (1899) p. 152. 
§ Mittheil. a. d. Zool. Stat. zu Neapel, xii. (1897) pp. 495-748 (10 pis.). 
