[Histonet] Re: Gomori (rather Perls) iron stain

[Robert Richmond]

Angie Barnett at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta (hey, I'm up the
road at Blairsville this week) leads to some questions about the iron
stain.

The usual "stain" for stainable iron (hemosiderin mostly, not the iron
within erythrocytes) results in deposition of a dense blue pigment,
ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian blue). This method was introduced by Max
Perls in 1846, and is the oldest histochemical technique still in use.
I annotate iron stains as "the Perls Prussian blue reaction
demonstrates only small amounts of stainable iron".

George Gomori (1904-1957) is sort of the founder of modern
histochemistry. Born in Budapest, he spent most of his active career
at the University of Chicago. (Google his name to find a superb
biography on the Rootsweb site, complete with a photomike of a GMS
stain showing fungi in a fine case of jock itch.) Customarily
pronounced "GOMmery" in English, and I don't know how in Hungarian.

Gomori wrote widely on histochemical topics, including iron staining,
and his name was often attached to techniques he really had nothing to
do with, in addition to the numerous ones he introduced.

He's a bit before my time in medicine - does anyone on this list remember him?

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN