ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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their thickness, they remain from five to ten minutes. A longer immer- 
sion bleaches too much, so that the finer fibres disappear. Last of all 
they are thoroughly washed in distilled water twice renewed. 
Sections thus fixed can afterwards be stained by any method, e. g. 
Weigert’s, Pal’s, &c., after which they are cleared up with creosote, 
imbedded in dammar, and protected with a cover-glass. 
Throughout the procedure the sections must be manipulated with 
glass instruments, and not allowed to touch any metallic substance. 
Rapid Staining of Elastic Fibres.* — Sig. E. Burci fixes the objects 
in alcohol, Muller’s fluid, or corrosive sublimate ; stains the sections 
with carmine or haematoxylin ; washes them in water ; dips them for a 
minute or two in saturated alcoholic solution of aurantia (ditrinitro- 
phenylamine). The sections are then passed rapidly through absolute 
alcohol, cleared, and mounted as usual. 
New Method of Spore-staining.f — Dr. H. Moeller describes the 
following method for staining spores. The cover-glass preparation, 
having been dried in the air, is passed thrice through the flame or 
immersed for two minutes in absolute alcohol. It is then placed in 
chloroform for two minutes, and afterwards washed with water ; then 
for 1/2-2 minutes in 5 per cent, chromic acid, and again thoroughly 
washed with water. The preparation is then stained with carbol 
fuchsin, being boiled in the flame for 60 seconds ; the carbol fuchsin 
having been poured off, the stain is decolorized in 5 per cent, sulphuric 
acid, after which the cover-glass is thoroughly washed with water. It 
is then contrast-stained by immersion for 30 seconds in aqueous 
solution of methylen-blue or malachite-green. The spores should be 
dark red and the rest of the bacterium green or blue., 
Haemalum and Haemacalcium, Staining Solution made from Hae- 
matoxylin Crystals.^ — Dr. Paul Mayer highly recommends the use of 
two staining solutions made from haematein, the essential staining 
constituent of logwood. When pure, haematein is a brown-red powder 
and crystallizes with one or three equivalents of water. It is most 
frequently found in commerce as haemateinum crystallizatum, a com- 
pound of haematein and about 9 per cent, of ammonia, and is more 
properly designated ammonia-haematein. When pure, haematein and its 
ammonia compounds should not only be perfectly soluble in distilled 
water and alcohol, but should remain so on addition of acetic acid. 
From haematein is prepared a solution called, for short, haemalum. 
1 grm. of the pigment is dissolved by the aid of heat in 50 ccm. of 
90 per cent, alcohol, and then added to a solution of 50 grm. of alum 
in 1 litre of distilled water. When cold it may be necessary to filter, 
but if the constituents have been pure this is quite superfluous. The 
solution is ready for use at once. It may be necessary to add a thymol 
crystal in order to prevent the formation of fungi. 
For staining sections, haematein is used like Boehmer’s haematoxylin, 
and if required the preparations may afterwards be washed with ordinary 
water, distilled water, or 1 per cent, alum solution. 
* Atti Soc. Tosc. Sci. Nat., vii. (1891', pp. 251-3. 
f Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 273-7. 
X Mittheil. Zool. Stat. zu Neapel, x. (1891) pp. 170-86. 
