Synopsis
An aqueous solution of mercurous nitrate reacts with bone and tissue calcified sites with the formation of brown to black amorphous masses and feathery crystals, the last resembling the crystals formed from the action of an aqueous solution of mercurous nitrate on calcium orthophosphate. Calcium oxalate reacts with this mercurous nitrate solution to form brown to black deposits on the surface of the oxalate particles; this suggests an adsorption phenomenon. The brown deposits are blackened by ammonium hydroxide, gold chloride, and many sulphur-containing compounds.
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Pizzolato, P. Mercurous nitrate as a histochemical reagent for calcium phosphate in bone and pathological calcification and for calcium oxalate. Histochem J 3, 463–469 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014785
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014785