Would you consider using an alternative fixative such as Bouins?
Disadvantages: Picric Acid  - Yuck, gets yellow everywhere.
Advantages: Picric Acid - Yeah, gets yellow everywhere. Turns those 
                       biopsies a nice bright yellow.
                       Great nuclear detail - really necessary for grading those 
                       prostate ca's
We get our friendly scientific company to supply 1oz prefills for all our
urologists (we won't "be specific" about company name but it's initials
are P.S.)  We just have the specimens collected in Bouins, fix for a
couple of hours and throw them in with the rest of the biopsies to
process. 

I was also curious about the "debris".  Where along your line does it
occur?  Sometimes excessively alkaline bluing can cause problems,
especially if rinses after hematoxylin are inadequate. Just a thought.
Stainfully yours, T L Braud
CHRISTUS St Frances Cabrini Hosp.
Alexandria, LA

Original Message:
We need to have an alternative to marking our prostate needle biopsies.
 We 
have been using merchrochrome (not sure if I spelled that right) but
need to 
have something that colors other than red.  Any suggestions?