We have been using Mayer's in our lab for over 30 years.  The mixture 
we use is similar to John Kiernan's except we use acetic acid and do 
not boil.  A number of years ago we tried this mixture without the
 chloral hydrate due to the inconvenience of having to continually 
renew our licence to handle it.(chloral hydrate is a drug often
 prescribed for use as a sedative)
There was no change in staining without chloral hydrate and as 
John states I query the 'preservative' tag.  It certainly does not
 preserve the quality of the stain as we generally make large
 batches for use in the lab.

We use it as a progressively for 1-2 minutes as a counterstain for IHC, PAS etc and regressively  for H&E staining with a time of 4 minutes. Though as stated it can be applied for up to 10 minutes depending of differentiation used.

regards




Tony Reilly
Chief Scientist
Anatomical Pathology
QHPS-Prince Charles Hospital
Rode rd Chermside Q 4032
Australia
Ph: 07 3350 8543
Fax: 07 33508546
tony_reilly@health.qld.gov.au


>>> "John A. Kiernan"  04/06/06 7:31 am >>>
You should have said!  Its:

Haematoxylin  1G
Sodium iodate  0.2G
Potassium alum  50G
Citric acid  1G
Chloral hydrate  50G
Dist. water  1000ml

Allow the first 3 items to dissolve in the water
overnight. Add citric acid and chloral hydrate,
then boil for 5 mins. Ready for use when cool.

D & W call the chloral hydrate a "preservative,"
which is a statement I don't understand.
Preserving what? This matter has been discussed on
Histonet in the past (not by me), and the
assertion has been made that Mayer's haemalum
works just as well without the chloral hydrate. I
can't remember who said that; I've used only the
complete mixture myself. It would be worth
searching in www.histosearch.com 
-- 
-------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan[AT]uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/ 
   http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/530/index.htm 
_______________________________
Julien Lambrey de Souza wrote:
> 
> Thanks,
> but actually I meant I needed the recipe for making Mayer's hematox
> according to Drury and Wallington (We don't have the book here and
> although I ordered it, I won't have it in time for the due dates...).
> 
> Julien.
> 
> Le 06-04-05, à 13:09, John A. Kiernan a écrit :
> 
> > From the 4th edition (1967), p.127:
> >
> > "Stain for 5-10 minutes."
> > --
> > -------------------------------
> > John A. Kiernan
> > Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
> > The University of Western Ontario
> > London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
> >    kiernan[AT]uwo.ca
> >    http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/ 
> >    http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/530/index.htm 
> > _______________________________
> > Julien Lambrey de Souza wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> Does anyone have the protocol for Mayer's hematox from Drury and
> >> Wallington's book (Carleton's histological techniques)? I need to
> >> compare with other protocols I have.
> >>
> >> Thanks'
> >>
> >> Julien Lambrey de Souza
> >> Research assistant, Evolutionary biology
> >> University of Quebec at Rimouski
> >>
> >> Tel: (418) 723-1986 #1714
> >> Fax: (418) 724-1849
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Histonet mailing list
> >> Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu 
> >> http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet 
> >


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