My object in this paper is to determine whether the spinal fluid has any deteriorating effect on the cells contained therein after it has been stored for a number of hours. The practical importance of such a study is apparent when a spinal fluid must be transported to a central laboratory, at such a distance as to delay considerably the cell count, and thus possibly result in a faulty count of the number of cells and perhaps an error in diagnosis. The importance of an immediate cell count in the spinal fluid is generally stressed by clinicians.
There is little reference in the recent literature to the effect of storage on the cells in the cerebrospinal fluid. Levinson,1 in his special book on "Cerebrospinal Fluid in Health and Disease," does not mention it. Greenfield and Carmichael,2 in their recent book covering almost the entire field of spinal fluid