Principle Microbiology

The total count of WBCs or the leukocytes is required in the diagnosis of many diseases. The number of white blood cells is much higher in the blood. So it is requires to be diluted and the Turk's solution is used for the purpose.

Turk's solution contains glacial acetic acid which lysis the red blood cells which may interfere in the counting. And it also contains the Methylene blue which stains the nucleus of the white blood cells.

The counting is done in a specialized slides called Counting chambers. The number counter per volume is then multiplied with the dilution factor to get the final number of cells per ml in undiluted blood.

The counting chamber is shown in above figure.
Counting is done under high power microscope.