136           THE MICROTOMIST S VADE-MECUM
Change the alcohol once or twice so as to well wash out the
sections, clear in clove oil (which completes the decolouration)
and mount in balsam. A double stain, the bacteria being
violet and the tissue-elements faint yellow. The colour of the
latter may be deepened by immersing the sections for a
moment in saturated aqueous solution of vesuvin, after they
have been transferred from the iodine solution to alcohol. A
longer immersion in the vesuvin would cause the violet colour
to be extracted from the bacteria. Dehydrate with alcohol
and mount as before.
The following schizomycetes take this stain : those of cru-
pose pneumonia, of pneumonia, of the liver abscesses after
perityphlitis, of circumscribed infiltration of the lungs, of
osteomyelitis, of arthritis suppurativa after scarlatina, of
nephritis suppurativa after cystitis, of multiple brain abscesses,
of erysipelas, of tubercular cattle distemper, and those of
putrefaction.
171b. Methylen-Blue and Acetic Acid.1 -To 100 parts of
solution of caustic potash of 1 : 10,000 add 30 parts of satu-
rated alcoholic solution of methylen-blue. Filter. Stain for
one or two hours, wash out with acetic acid of ' per cent.,
followed by water. Dehydrate with absolute alcohol, clear
with oil of cedar, and mount in balsam. This is specially
recommended for bacteria of glanders, typhoid fever, and
some others; and it is stated to be also the most universally
successful stain for bacteria in tissues in general.
171c. Gentian-Violet and Vesuvin (Weigert's method 2).-
Take of a 2 per cent. aqueous solution of gentian-violet 12
c.c., and of a saturated aqueous solution of anilin oil 100
c.c. Mix. Stain sections in the usual way. Then stain for
15 minutes in the following solution: Bismarck brown, 1 gr.;
spiritus vini rectificati (sp. gr. -830), 10 c.c.; distilled water,
I ' British Med. Journal,' Sept. 6, 1884, p. 486.
2 ' Practitioner,' xxxiii (1884), p. 35. ' Journ. Roy. Mic. Soc.' (N.S.),
iv (1884), p. 818.

II