Hartman′s Fixative

Hartman′s fixative, which is also known as Davidson′s Fixative, contains acetic acid, alcohol, and formalin. It is widely used for the preservation of eye, bone marrow, breast, testis, and other tissues for histologic examination.

An overnight fixative used for the visualization of lymph nodes in radical dissection specimens. It is helpful in visualizing both both breast and colon specimens by turning lymph nodes white. Moore and Barr used a version of Hartman′s fixative for fixing skin biopsy specimens for study of fine nuclear details. Rat testes for immunohistochemical and morphological comparison were fixed using conventional and modified Hartman′s fixative for 24 hours, while eyes and testes for other analyses were fixed for 48 hours.