The Mechanism of Staining Explained on A Chemical Basis II. General Presentation

At present the division of the factors influencing staining into those supporting a chemical mechanism or those supporting what is known as “adsorption” mechanism is questioned because the latter term cannot be definitely defined from general usage. In this paper the nature of adsorption is discussed. Data indicating definitely a chemical mechanism are not directly considered; but in many cases often cited by other writers as necessitating a non-chemical mechanism, the validity of such mechanism is questioned.