[Simplification of the Papanicolaou stain which is easily reproducable (author's transl)]

A simple and well reproducable modification of the Papanicolaou stain is reported. The most important modification is the replacement of the natural stain hematoxyline by the qualitively excellent synthetic stain thionin which is immediately added to the alcoholic fixation solution for a fixation stain. The high labor intense alternation between alcohol water and alcohol is thus eliminated. The quality of the nuclear staining is very good. The fixation staining with thionin without counter-staining of the cytoplasma may be used for a rapid thionin stain which gives sufficient cytoplasmatic staining by the thionin for a rapid cytological smear for cancer. The counter-stain of the cytoplasma was also simplified. The over-all staining of this simplification of the pap smear is comparable to that of the original papanicolaou stain. This modification of the papanicolaou stain fulfills requirements which a stain in competition with the original papanicolaou stain should have. 1. The modification is qualitively equal to the original method, 2. the staining method is simpler, 3. the staining method is well reproducable, 4. the staining method is more economical.