I am not aware that we are discontinuing Alcian blue,  I will contact our
production people and find out what is really going on with this item and  will
advise soon.

Gordon Fenn
BDH





RUSS ALLISON <Allison@cardiff.ac.uk> on 11/02/99 03:41:00 AM

To:   Lynn Gardner <lynn-gardner@uiowa.edu>
cc:   histonet@pathology.swmed.edu (bcc: Gordon Fenn/BDH/EMI/Merck)
Subject:  Re:



The history of alcian blue is indeed an interesting one, this not
being the first time it has been going "out of production"
Professor John Scott in the UK spent a considerable portion of his
prfessional life trying to discover the formula of alcian blue.  As a
biochemist, he felt it absolutely necessary for his research to know
the formulation.  British Drug House  BDH (as it then was - now
Merck in the UK and rest of Europe) owned the formula (though
Merck, I believe) and constantly and consistently refused to divulge
the formula.  Ironically, it was almost simultaneous with Scott
working it out for himself, by time-consuming experimentation, that
BDH decided to no longer produce the dye and, if I remember
correctly release the formula (perhaps because a patent expired,
but I am not sure of that).

Russ Allison,
Dental School
Cardiff
Wales