Re: Silver Nitrate for Margins -Reply

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From:RUSS ALLISON <Allison@cardiff.ac.uk>
To:histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Reply-To:
Date:Mon, 16 Aug 1999 07:50:20 GMT0BST
Content-Type:text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

You can dry the Indian ink by touching with tissue/blotting paper; 
you do not have to leave the specimen sitting around to dry!

Let me re-phrase my question "What does acetic acod/vinegar/Bouin's 
fluid do?

Any of you ever spoken to an "ink scientist"?  You would be VERY 
surprised how much there is to know about inks (Indian ink is a 
subject on its own)

In the past, we have been interested in the particle size of Indian 
ink.  Those guys not only know (and make inks of different particle 
size), they also vary the liquid in which the particles are 
suspended, so that the suspensoid has different characteristics, 
including drying time, spread, density, etc.  They are useful friends 
in forensics also.  We needed to assess the size of gaps between 
adjacent biological/non-biological structures and used variously 
sized Indian inks to do so.  We sill do when looking at dental 
restorations.

So back to my question - why vinegar, etc on inked margins?  OK, I 
know why, but what is the rationale?  Is it fixing the suspensoid 
phase of the ink?  Is the suspensoid necessarily a protein?

Still puzzled in Wales
Russ Allison, Wales



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