Injecting Small Animal Bodies.
Fig. 241.—Injecting Syringe.
Fig. 242.—Water Bath and Melting Vessels.
The injection of animal bodies practised by the older anatomists, to render the vascular system more apparent, has not been superseded by the more modern methods of staining. The method of injecting even small bodies requires some skill, and a few pieces of apparatus made expressly for the purpose. First, a special form of brass syringe of such a size that it may be grasped with the right hand, the thumb at the same time covering the button at the top of the piston-rod when drawn out to the full. In [Fig. 241] the piston rod is seen withdrawn, a is the body, with a screw at the top for firmly screwing down the cover, b, after the piston, c, is replaced; e is a stop-cock, to the end of which either of the smaller cannulæ, g, is affixed. The transverse wires are for securing them tightly with thread to the vessels into which they are to be inserted. In addition to the syringe, two or three tinned vessels are required to contain size, injecting fluid, and hot water.
The size must be kept hot by the aid of a water bath; if a naked fire be used there is danger of burning it. A convenient form of apparatus for melting the size, and afterwards keeping it at a proper temperature, is [Fig. 242].
Fig. 243.—Artery Needle.
A pair of strong forceps for seizing the vessel, and a small needle ([Fig. 243]) is also necessary for passing the thread round the vessel into which the injection pipe has been inserted. These complete the list of apparatus. To prepare the material for opaque injections, take one pound of the finest and most transparent glue, break it into small pieces, put it into an earthen pot, and pour on it three pints of cold water; let it stand twenty-four hours, stirring it now and then with a stick; set it over a slow fire for half an hour, or until all the pieces are perfectly dissolved, skim off the froth from the surface, and strain through a flannel for use. Isinglass and cuttings of parchment make an excellent size, and are preferable for particular injections. If gelatine be employed an ounce to a pint of water will be sufficiently strong, but in very hot weather it is necessary to add a little more gelatine. It must be first soaked in part of the cold water until it swells up and becomes soft, when the rest of the water, made hot, is to be added. The size thus prepared may be fixed with finely levigated vermilion, chrome-yellow, blue salts, or flake white.
To prepare the subject, the principal points to be attained are: to dissolve the fluids and completely empty the vessels; relax the solids; and prevent the injection from coagulating too soon. For this purpose it is necessary to place the animal, or part to be injected, in warm water, as hot as the operator’s hand will bear. This should be kept at nearly the same temperature for some time by occasionally adding hot water. The length of time required is in proportion to the size of the part and the amount of its rigidity.
Injecting the systems of Vessels with different colours: Carmine and Gelatine Injection.—Carmine 30 grains, strong liquid ammonia 60 drops, glacial acetic acid 43 drops, gelatine solution (one ounce in six ounces of water) two ounces, water one ounce: dissolve the carmine in the ammonia and water in a test tube, and mix it with one half of the warm gelatine, add the acid to the remaining half of gelatine, and drop it little by little into the carmine mixture, stirring it well with a glass rod during the mixing; filter through flannel, and add a few drops of carbolic acid to make it keep. It is very important that the stain should be quite neutral, the test of which is the colour and smell of the fluid. It should be a bright red, and all trace of smell of ammonia must be removed.
Prussian or Berlin Blue and Gelatine.—Take 1½ ounces of gelatine, place it in a vessel and cover it with water; allow it to stand until all the water is absorbed and the gelatine is quite soft, then dissolve in hot water. Dissolve one drachm (60 grains) of Prussian or Berlin blue in six ounces of water, and gradually mix it with the gelatine solution, stirring well with a glass rod during the mixing; then filter as before.
Watery Solution of Berlin Blue.—Dissolve 2½ drachms of the blue in 18 ounces of distilled water, and filter. This staining fluid is used for injecting the lymphatic system.
Directions for Injecting.—The animal to be injected must be first killed by chloroform, and injected while still warm; to secure this place the body in a water bath, at a temperature of 104° Fahrenheit. Expose the main artery of the parts to be injected, clear a small portion of it from the surrounding tissues, and place a ligature of thin tissue or silk round it, by means of the small artery needle ([Fig. 243]). With a pair of sharp-pointed scissors make an oblique slit in the wall of the vessel, insert the cannula, and tie the ligature firmly over the artery behind the point of the cannula, into which put the stop-cock. Fill the syringe with injection fluid, which must not be too warm, and take care not to draw up any air-bubbles; insert the nozzle of the syringe into the stop-cock and force in a little fluid; remove the syringe so that the air may escape, re-insert the syringe, repeat the process until no air-bubbles escape, and then proceed slowly with the injection. Half an hour will be required to complete the process in an animal the size of a rabbit. To judge of the completeness of the injection, examine the vascular parts of the lips, tongues and eyes; if satisfactory, tie the ligature round the artery and withdraw the syringe; place the animal in cold water for an hour to consolidate the injection fluid. When cold dissect out the organs, cut them up, and place them in methylated spirit to harden. Change the spirit every twenty-four hours for the first three days. The hardening process will be complete in ten days.
To inject lymphatics by the puncture process, a small-sized subcutaneous syringe should be used, filled with a watery solution of the prepared stains. Thrust the nozzle into the pad of the foot, (or tongue), and then rub the limb to cause the injection fluid to flow along the lymphatic vessels into the glands.
When the blue stain is used add a few drops of acetic acid to the spirit while the hardening process is going on.
Of Injecting Different Systems of Vessels with Different Colours.—It is often desirable to inject different systems of vessels distributed to a part with different colours, in order to ascertain the arrangement of each set of vessels and their relation to each other. A portion of the gall-bladder in which the veins have been injected with white lead, and the arteries with vermilion, forms an attractive preparation. Each artery, even to its smallest branches, is seen to be accompanied by two small veins, one lying on either side of it. By this method four different sets of tubes have been injected—the artery with vermilion, the portal vein with white lead, the duct with Prussian blue, and the hepatic vein with lake. There are also opaque colouring matters which may be employed for double injections.
Injecting the Lower Animals.—The vessels of fishes are exceedingly tender, and require great caution in filling them. It is often difficult or quite impossible to tie the pipe in the vessel of a fish, and it will generally be found a much easier process to cut off the tail of the fish, and put the pipe into the divided vessel which lies immediately beneath the spinal column. In this simple manner beautiful injections of fish may be made.
Mollusca (slug, snail, oyster, &c.).—The tenuity of the vessels of the mollusc often renders it impossible to tie the pipe in the usual manner. The capillaries are, however, usually very large, so that the injection runs very readily. In different parts of the bodies of these animals are numerous lacunæ or spaces, which communicate directly with the vessels. Now, if an opening be made through the integument of the muscular foot of the animal, a pipe may be inserted, and thus the vessels may be injected from these lacunæ with comparative facility.
Insects.—Injections of insects may be made by forcing the injection into the general abdominal cavity, when it passes into the dorsal vessel and is afterwards distributed throughout the system. The superfluous injection is then washed away, and such parts of the body as may be required removed for examination.
Natural injection of Medusæ may be effected without injuring the vessels, with an opening at the side remote from it. The medusa must be placed in a glass vessel, with the bell downwards, and a bell-jar ending in a narrow tube above is placed over it and made air-tight; the medusa is then covered with the injection-mass, the air in the glass is exhausted, and as the sea-water runs out by slits in the lower side of the annular canal, the coloured fluid runs in. In the case of leeches and large species of earthworms, the natural injection is made from the ventral sinus. In all cases a glass tube is used, with a finely drawn-out point. The injection is complete when the injection issues from the counter-opening. Besides the animals mentioned, large caterpillars, beetles, and larvæ of various kinds are favourable objects for injection; the glass cannula being introduced into the posterior end of the dorsal vessel, and the counter-opening made in the ventral vessel, and vice versâ.
Staining Living Protoplasm with Bismarck Brown.—Henneguy having treated Paramœcium aurelia with an aqueous solution of aniline brown (known as “Bismarck Brown”), found that they assumed an intense yellow-brown colour. The colour first appears in the vacuoles of the protoplasm, and then in the protoplasm itself, the nucleus generally remaining colourless, and becoming more visible than in the normal state. If a yellow-tinted paramœcium be compressed so as to cause a small quantity of the protoplasm to exude, it is seen that it really is the protoplasmic substance which becomes coloured. All the Infusoria may be stained with Bismarck brown, but no other aniline colour employed exhibits the same property—they merely stain the Infusoria after death, and are in fact poisonous. Living protoplasm does not as a rule absorb colouring matters, and as Infusoria are chiefly composed of protoplasm, attempts have been made to ascertain whether protoplasm in general, of animal or vegetable origin, behaved in the same way in the presence of aniline brown. A tolerably strong solution of Bismarck brown was therefore injected under the skin of the back of several frogs. After some hours the tissues became uniformly tinted a deep yellow; the muscular substance especially had a very marked yellow tint. The frogs did not appear in the least incommoded. Small fry of trout placed in a solution stained rapidly and continued to swim about. Finally, a guinea-pig, under whose skin some powder of Bismarck brown had been introduced, soon presented a yellow staining of the buccal and anal mucous membranes and of the skin. Seeds of cress sown on cotton soaked with a concentrated solution of the Bismarck brown sprouted, and the young plants were strongly stained brown; but on crushing the tissues and examining them under the microscope, it was ascertained that the protoplasm of the cells was very feebly coloured: the vessels, on the contrary, showed a deep brown stain up to their termination of the leaf. The mycelium of a mould developed in a solution of Bismarck brown was clearly stained after having been washed in water, whilst it is known that the mycelium, which frequently forms in coloured solutions, picro-carmine, hæmatoxylin, &c., remained perfectly colourless. Other aniline colours injected under the skin of frogs stained the connective tissue as deeply as did the Bismarck brown; but the striæ of muscle remained colourless. We may conclude, then, that Bismarck brown possesses the quality of colouring living protoplasm both in plants and in animals.