Fran Adams at thhe Medical Center of Central GA in Macon, Georgia asks:

>>One of our Doctors and Pathology Attendant addressed an interesting 
question on Friday. They asked where the name B-5 originated from for the 
fixative, B-5. Perhaps it's derived from the chemical make up of Mercury. I 
didn't know the answer but thought that someone in the Histology World would. 
Just a curious question, if anyone knows the answer, I'll relay it to my 
Pathologist.<<

It was simply one of a series of numbered formulas for fixatives that the 
late great R.D. Lillie put together maybe thirty years ago. They were rather 
obscurely published at first, and none other than B-5 ever came into 
widespread use. I remember going to considerable trouble to get the formula 
for B-5 around twenty years ago. - In many ways I preferred Zenker's 
fixative, but with chromium in it as well as mercury, it's even more 
difficult to dispose of.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN