On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 AndreaH@imclone.com wrote:

> I thought there was little or no difference between 4% paraformaldehyde and
> 10% neutral buffered formalin.  Will a chemist step in and resolve my
> confusion??

  I'm not a chemist, but know enough to assure you that you
  are entirely correct in your thoughts about formaldehyde.
  
  All this has been the subject of dozens of HistoNet
  communications.  Now the archives are again available
  on the web, there's no point re-quoting the textbooks
  yet another time.

  The Archives are very good - well indexed etc - but
  we must remember that this informal exchange of
  questions and answers is not the font of eternal
  wisdom. The only reliable sources of information are
  peer-reviewed journals and textbooks (which cite the
  journals, and also are quite severely vetted by their
  publishers before being taken on as commercial risks).

  Every lab doing histology should have a shelf full of
  big textbooks (10 X $100 = $1000) and two or three
  journals (@ $100 to 200 per year each: Max. $600 per
  year). Total expenditure is $1000 statim and a few 
  hundred a year thereafter. This is well below 1% of
  the salary of some worthless senior administrator ...
  (Perhaps I'd better say no more, having made the point.)

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1