[Histonet] Romeis - was why do we use xylene

[Rene J Buesa]

Even when I don't read German, my copy of Romeis' book (Munchen 1948, from Leibniz Verlag, GDR) with a fantastic subject index and tables (with chemical names and amounts) have helped me in some occasions. A German-English dictionary also helps. Has many sections on almost any histology subject.
   
  The thing with isopropanol is that at 60ºC forms an amulsion with the paraffin, although Peloris uses "burts of heat" to totally eliminate the propanol and let the paraffin to infiltrate.
  Isopropanol is mentioned as an antemedium also inBancroft and Stevens book.
   
  With relation to "dangerousness" propanol has a TWA of 200 ppm, which makes it twice less toxic than xylene or naphtha.
  Regarding flash points, for pure iso-propanol = 12ºC, for pure ethanol = 14ºC and I don't think that a 2ºC difference makes for much!  Xylene flash point = 25ºC
   
  There is a paper by Falkeholm at al. (Lab.Invest. 81(9):1213-21; 2001), with very good statistical support, where they demonstrate that propanol is as good or better as an antemedium than xylene for paraffin infiltration (they even eliminated ethanol and dehydrate with propanol). The study was conducted in Sweden.
  René J.

rsrichmond <@t> aol.com wrote:
  Barbara Bublava and Gudrun Lang mention Romeis, a reference book on technique, often cited by R.D. Lillie. I've never seen this book - checked amazon.de and it's out of print - do you think it's worth having a copy if you can read German?

The book is Mikroscopische Technik, three postwar editions 1949, 1968, 1989, by Benno Romeis and Peter Boeck.

Processing directly from isopropanol to paraffin? Just let me know when, and I'll announce my retirement! - since I turn 68 in a month -

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN
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