Comparison of Alum Hematoxylin - Harri's, Mayer's and EhrlichPaperback, 3 September 2012

It is commonplace, virtually platitudinous to say that the practice of histopathology has changed almost beyond recognition during the last three or four decades. It is correct that the scope of pathology has widened and that greater diagnostic accuracy can often be achieved. The persistence and continuing viability and growth of hematoxylin and Eosin morphology indicates that this simple technique continues to meet most of the requirement of not only pathologists but also clinicians and, let us not forget, patients.The contribution of staining techniques to provide contrast to tissues, cells and sub cellular components in brightfield microscopy has been remarkable, considering that many of these staining techniques are still widely used for diagnostic purposes more than a century after their introduction. There is probably no other area in cell biology where simple histological techniques have survived, many in their original form, from a period before the current generation of cell biologists were born. It is interesting that in these days of rapidly advancing laboratory technology, the most commonly used stain in biology is based on hematoxylin.