Commonly fungi have been demonstrated microscopically in skin scrapings and nail shavings by maceration of the material in solution of potassium hydroxide.
Langeron's1 method of staining fungi in a solution of cotton blue in Amann's2 lactophenol was adapted by Swartz and Conant3 for macerated specimens. In order to remove the alkali they transferred the material to a watchglass containing water. It is difficult to return the small particles to the slide, and hyphae may be lost in the water bath.
Schubert4 prolonged and complicated the method by extending the rinsing time to a period of hours and centrifuging and collecting the scales on a wire net. He assumed that thorough rinsing was necessary in order to obtain well stained specimens. That this was an error was shown in the following experiment:
A drop of cotton of blue—lactophenol placed on the rim of the cover slip