Section Cutting and Staining: A practical introduction to histological methods for students and practitionersColman, Walter S.
Science
Section Cutting and Staining: A practical introduction to histological methods for students and practitioners
Colman, Walter S.
Microscopy
The excess of the picrocarmine should be allowed to run off the slide,
and the latter wiped. Some of the stain should, however, be left on the
section, as its effects go on increasing, and are often not fully seen
until a few weeks have elapsed. They should be mounted in Farrant’s
medium. As a rule those mounted in Canada balsam do not give such good
results. Should there be special reasons for using this medium, as in
mounting spinal cord sections, &c., they should be dehydrated after
staining in picrocarmine in an alcoholic solution of picric acid (one
part of a saturated alcoholic solution to five of alcohol), before
clarifying in oil of cloves, as otherwise the alcohol will dissolve out
the picric acid, and much of the differential staining effect will be
lost. The nuclei should be stained a bright crimson, the protoplasm of
the cells yellow, or a dull pink, the fibrous elements a bright pink,
red corpuscles green, and all dead material, _e.g._, caseous matter,
bright yellow. It also stains nerve-cells, and the axis cylinders of
nerve fibres very brightly. It is, however, a rather uncertain dye.
The results are most brilliant in the case of fresh sections.
*Osmic acid* is invaluable for staining fatty particles in the cells.
For ordinary use the one per cent. stock solution (p. 21) should be
diluted with ten times its bulk of distilled water, and sections
stained in it all night in a dark cupboard, or the watch glass
containing them may be placed inside a small box.
The sections must be washed _thoroughly_ in plenty of water. If desired
they may be stained subsequently in picrocarmine or methyl violet
if waxy degeneration also be present. Sections should be mounted in
Farrant’s solution, as Canada balsam usually gives disappointing
results.
It demonstrates the most minute fatty particles in degenerating cells,
&c., staining them black. It may be employed to demonstrate the
globules of fat blocking up the vessels in fat embolism.
It stains the myelin sheaths of nerves black, and will be again
referred to when speaking of methods of staining the spinal cord.
*Nitrate of silver* is employed for staining the intercellular cement
of epithelial cells. It stains this substance a deep black, while the
rest of the tissue takes on a brown colour. It is used as a half per
cent. solution in *distilled* water, and kept in a stoppered bottle
carefully covered up with brown paper. To use it take some epithelial
tissue, _e.g._, the omentum from a recently killed animal, or a section
of some epithelial tumour, immediately after excision. Wash thoroughly
in distilled water to remove all chlorides, and then place in a watch
glass containing the silver solution. Keep this in the dark for half an
hour and then wash thoroughly in plenty of water. The section should be
mounted in glycerine or Farrant’s medium and kept from the light or it
will become too darkly stained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Section Cutting and Staining: A practical introduction to histological methods for students and practitioners — John Shaqi
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