The mass staining of paraffin sections before the removal of wax.

The problem of producing large nwmbers of sections for teaching purposes and staining them by haematoxylin and eosin has become acute in.the post-war years, due to the shortage both of trained technicians and of reagents, especially ethyl alcohol. Methods previously used have suffered from the disadvantages of being too long, or wasteful of reagents, and it was with these factors in mind that the following method was evolved. Robb-Smith (1937) showed that free paraffin sections could be impregnated with silver. Mayer also showed that methyl violet would stain amyloid in paraffin sections that had not been de-waxed. This principle has been adapted for the mass staining of paraffin sections before the removal of wax.