Page:Blood examination.djvu/15

Rh suffice it to say, that clean slides and cover slips should be used, and both fresh and stained blood films examined; that we find the best staining reagents to be Leishman's stain, or hæmatoxylin, counterstained with eosin; that actual counts of red and white corpuscles per c. mm. and differential counts should be made and the colour index estimated; that alteration of the shape or normal constituents of the blood be noted, that the plasma and corpuscles should be examined for the presence of parasites or pigment, always first using a low power and then the oil immersion lens; that attempts to obtain cultures from the blood be made if thought desirable, and its agglutinative power tested; that if pus be suspected, examination for iodophilia be made.

There are other methods of blood examination, but at present insufficiently useful to allow us to refer to them here.

For the purposes of this paper we shall consider that normal blood contains—