Mineral oil is also called Paraffin Oil.  I don't know if this is the same
stuff used in the article you mention.  

In processing of plant tissues, I've used mineral oil and it works great,
although, I used xylene as well.  The mineral oil in this processing was
used as a transition fluid to dilute out the xylene before going into the
parafin.    While it worked nice on the plant tissues I did, I don't think
it would infiltrate animal tissues in a timely manner.... but maybe.  Hmmmm
maybe I'll have to experiment with this.

BTW, where IS my June issue of J. of Histotech??? 

Connie McManus


At 06:51 PM 06/22/2000 -0400, RSRICHMOND@aol.com wrote:
>Marsha R. Price (where?) notes the article "Mineral oil: the best xylene 
>substitute for tissue processing yet" in The Journal of Histotechnology 23, 
>143-9, June 2000 - which I also received today. By Rene J. Buesa in the Dept 
>of Path & Lab ed at Mount Sinai Med Ctr of Greater Miami in Miami Beach FL. 
>
>This very long article is up to the journal's usual editorial standards. 
>Mineral oil, not a simple material chemically, comes in at least three 
>commercial "weights" - the article gives no clue that I can find as to what 
>kind of mineral oil is meant. I certainly wouldn't advise anybody going out 
>and trying mineral oil without calling the author to find out just what 
>mineral oil it was that he used.
>
>Bob Richmond
>Samurai Pathologist
>Knoxville TN
>
>
Connie McManus
Veterinary Diagnostics Lab
Utah State University
Logan, UT
USA