On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, Jaclynn Lett wrote:

> We're looking for clearing agents for viewing whole mounts of mouse cochleas
> under the dissecting scope.  They'll be labeled with fluorescent tags such
> as ...

Try benzyl benzoate. It's optically better than meth sal, and 
doesn't smell awful like methyl benzoate (which is optically
best, with refractive index closest to that of glass). 
Specimens in benz benz are wonderfully transparent. These
oily clearing agents are much like xylene in their solvent
properties, and should not affect the dyes and labels that 
you listed.

I'll be off-Histonet for a few weeks, so don't bother
to acknowledge this message.
----------------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,  Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca