I trained in the UK during the early 1960s and went to Bromley Technical
College every Friday night, a real pain since it was on the edge of South
London and I lived on the edge of North London. The instructor was
Wallington, of the text book, and he was regularly in contact with Lendrum.
Even in those days (63 and 64) Lendrum was an exception among "dye
tinkerers". Wallington told us that producing new methods for fibrin was
pretty much a hobby for Lendrum. The one noted as the long method on
StainsFile is actually from a variation given to Wallington by Lendrum
earlier in that week of that Friday's lecture.
I used to use all those methods when I was in Winnipeg during the 1970s,
mostly on rejecting kidney transplants. Even then immunifluorescence was
replacing staining methods for fibrin, certainly on renal biopsies. I
always found the Obadiah an unsatisfactory stain, the Masson 44/41 too. The
colours just didn't look right to me. The picro-mallory is, however, one of
the stars in trichrome staining if done on properly prepared material. I
always found it absolutely beautiful to look at, but then, I am noted as
being a bit strange about things like that.
I have substituted amido black 10B (naphthol blue black, CI # 20470) for
naphthalene blue black CS, and it worked fine. They are structurally very
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Richmond"
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 9:50 AM
Subject: [Histonet] Re: Lendrum stains
> Sharon E. Willman (where?) asks for information about "Lendrun" and
> Fraser stains, she doesn't say for what.
> A.C. Lendrum, I was told back around 1970, was one of the last
> histologists who understood textile dyes. Apparently there were a lot
> of small factories making obscure dyes in Scotland back then, and he
> knew all of these single malt dye-makers and collected numerous
> samples. His eclectic habits make it difficult to identify the dyes he
> used, let alone obtain and use them. That and the invention of
> immunohistochemistry probably consign most of his work to oblivion.
> Lendrum's "Obadiah" stain (he was fond of such fanciful names) for
> fibrin was in use in a research lab at Cornell Medical Center on east
> 68th street in New York City when I was there briefly in 1968.
> Stainsfile gives the following reference: Lendrum, A. C., et. al.
> (1962) "Studies on the character and staining of fibrin." Journal of
> Clinical Pathology, v. 15, p. 401. [this is a British journal, not the
> AJCP]. Rotsa ruck finding naphthalene blue black CS, Chicago red, or
> polar brilliant red BN.
> John Kiernan - Dick Dapson - Mike Titford - other geezers on this list
> - do you know anything more about A.C. Lendrum? He must have been an
> interesting guy!
> Bob Richmond
> Samurai Pathologist
> Knoxville TN
> Histonet mailing list
Histonet mailing list