A differential staining for living and dead larval trematodes.

In the course of various experiments on larval trematodes, we often confront the necessity for determining their death. In such cases the movement of body, cilia or flame-cells is used commonly as an indicator to determine their death by many parasitologists. However, such movements appear to be not always coincident with the time of the death, consequently results of the diagnosis by such a technic seems to be not so exact. The purpose of this work is to find a simple and more reliable technic for determining the death of larval trematodes. For the diagnosis of cellular death, following technics have been proposed by previous investigators : 1. Morphological degenerating process. 2. Changes of movement or locomotion of cell. 3. Vital staining. 4. Permeability of chemical agents. 5. Microestimation of electric changes on cell (e. g. pH, rH). 6. Changes of localization or activity of unstable substances in the cell (e. g. enzymes, nucleic acids, etc.). 7. Plasmolysis (especially on plants). 8. Changes of ultraviolet absorption. 9. Changes of reflex index of cell.