On the distribution of the different arteries supplying the human brain / Charles E. Beevor.

  • Beevor, Charles E.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the distribution of the different arteries supplying the human brain / Charles E. Beevor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    12 brains with these colours with indifferent results, I found that after injecting with gelatine coloured with soluble carmine the colour remained fixed and did not come out in the hardening fluid (formalin), and the injection penetrated to the finest capillaries. Other soluble colours were then tried, and for the last 60 brains I have used soluble colours only. The formula which I now use for the carmine mass is :— Carmine, |- drachm [2 grammes] ; ammonia, |- fluid drachm [1*8 c.c]; glycerine, J fluid oz. [14 c.c.]. Mix and add to gelatine, 2 ozs. [56 grammes] ; water to 1 pint [568 c.c.]. The gelatine is soaked in cold water for half an hour, then melted in a water bath and the solution of carmine in ammonia and glycerine is added to it; water is added to make up to one pint, and the mass is filtered through flannel. For the blue mass I use Nicholson's blue, prepared as follows :—- Nicholson's blue, 15 grains [1 gramme] ; alcohol (90 per cent.), \ fluid oz. [14 c.c.]. Dissolve the blue in the alcohol and add to the gelatine mass as for carmine, making up to one pint with water. With the brown and yellow colours great difficulties have been experienced. Bismarck brown has been used, but if any of it escapes it is liable to stain the cortex and it is not a good contrast to the carmine. It has been used in varying strengths as follows :—■ Bismarck brown, 1-4 drachms [4-16 grammes] ; methylated spirit, 3 fluid ozs. [85 c.c] ; glycerine, 1 fluid oz. [28 c.c.]. Dissolve and add to the gelatine mass as for carmine, making up to 1 pint [568 c.c] with water. Aniline blue black (nigrosine) was also used once, but it did not penetrate well. For the yellow colour I have used gelatine coloured with saffron, aurantia yellow, primuline, orange amatto, madder, naphthol yellow, picric acid, pyoktanin yellow and others, but the colour has washed out in the formalin. Why some colours, as naphthol green, remain permanent (2-3 years), and others, as naphthol yellow, dissolve out in the formaline solution, is a chemical question which it is difficult to solve, but there is probably some combination between the gelatine, coloured with carmine or Nicholson's blue, and the formalin. The only yellow colours which were found so far to be stable were acridin yellow and orange yellow, which, though they wash out to a certain extent, were still visible in many cases a year after the injection. The formula for acridin yellow is :— Acridin yellow, 2 drachms [8 grammes]. Glycerine, 1 fluid oz. [28 c.c]. Dissolve and add to the gelatine mass as for carmine, and make up with water to 1 pint [568 c.c.J