The Microscope. Its History, Construction, and Application 15th ed.: Being a familiar introduction to the use of the instrument, and the study of microscopical scienceHogg, Jabez
History
The Microscope. Its History, Construction, and Application 15th ed.: Being a familiar introduction to the use of the instrument, and the study of microscopical science
Hogg, Jabez
Microscopy; Natural history
Koch nevertheless showed, at the great meeting of the International
Medical Association in London, 1881, a series of micro-photographs
of bacteria and tissue sections, which were the admiration of all
who saw them. To meet a difficulty occasioned by the aniline dyes,
Koch recommended that the preparations should be stained brown;
other experimenters found that preparations stained either yellow or
yellowish-brown gave good photographic representations; but it is by
no means an easy matter to find a good differential stain of bacteria
in the tissues, as even Bismarck brown is not entirely successful.
Other bacteriologists have encountered similar difficulties at the
outset. Hauser succeeded in showing the value of micro-photography
in the production of pictures of _impression_ preparations and
colonies of bacteria in nutrient-gelatine. But to give the general
effect, as well as faithfully reproduce the minute details in these
preparations of bacteria by the aid of the pencil, would in most
cases create insurmountable difficulties, except in the hand of the
most accomplished draughtsman. Hauser employed Gerlach’s apparatus,
and Schleusser’s dry-plates, and obtained his illumination by means
of a small incandescent lamp, which gave a strong white light. The
preparations so photographed were for the most part stained brown, and
mounted in the ordinary way in Canada balsam.
In 1884, Van Ermengen succeeded in photographing preparations of
comma-bacilli stained with fuchsine and methyl violet. These pictures
afforded the first practical illustration of the value of iso-chromatic
plates in micro-photography, and their introduction marks a distinct
era in the progress of micro-photography. The iso-chromatic, or more
properly the ortho-chromatic, dry-plate process was introduced because
in photography blue or violet comes out almost or quite white, while
other colours, yellow and red, are represented by a sombre shade or
even by black. This is due to the want of equality of strength between
the luminous and the actinic or chemical rays of light. In other
words, the violet and blue rays are more chemically active than any
other portion of the spectrum. It was found, then, that if plates
were coloured yellow with turmeric, the blue and violet rays were
intercepted, and their actinism proportionately reduced.
“In 1881, the so-called iso-chromatic plates were introduced. The
emulsion of bromide of silver and gelatine was stained with eosin, and
it was claimed that colours could be represented with their relative
intensity; chlorophyll and other stains have also been tried, and
by such methods the ordinary gelatine dry-plates can be so treated
that they will reproduce various colours, according to their relative
light intensity, and thus be rendered _iso_-, or what is now known as
ortho-chromatic.”
Apparatus and Material.
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