If  the  mixture  is  a  success  the  stain  has  a  russet-brown  color,  not
a  deep  red.  In  case  it  was  one  of  the  nine  failures,  one  may  try  a
little  doctoring  with  more  orange  G,  or  more  methyl  green,  but  this
seldom  improves  matters,  and  those  with  much  experience  throw  it
away  and  start  over.
This  stain  seems  to  improve  for  a  time  on  standing,  but  when
old  certainly  spoils.  It  should  never  be  shaken,  and  should  not  be
filtered.  The  drops  to  be  used  are  removed  on  the  glass  rod  from  as
near  the  centre  of  the  bottle  as  possible.  The  specimen  is  covered
with  this  stain  for  from  three  to  twenty  minutes.  It  is  very  difficult
to  overstain,  films  presenting  this  appearance  are  usually  underheated.
The  specimen  is  then  washed  in  distilled  water,  quickly  blotted,  and
mounted  in  balsam.  It  may  be  quickly  washed  in  absolute  alcohol
which  brings  out  the  granules  more  clearly  but  makes  the  nuclei  paler.
In  a  successful  specimen  the  red  blood-cells  will  be  of  a  buff  color
without  the  slightest  shade  of  red;  the  nuclei  of  the  leucocytes  will
be  of  a  dark  green,  of  the  normoblasts  almost  black ;  the  neutrophile
granules  will  take  a  lilac  stain,  the  eosinophile  granules,  a  crimson.
