Paul Davison asked me if a substitute for Hoyer's might be available
commercially. I remembered that several suppliers in the U.S. used to sell
small quantities of Hoyer's already prepared. Just to be sure, I checked
their catalogs. As suspected, neither chloral hydrate nor Hoyer's is
available without a federal permit. I have heard that these permits are
much more difficult to obtain than they used to be.
In my internet searches I found that some people were also complaining about
being able to obtain gum arabic. Most of the complaints were of the quality
or grade available -- they used to use a flake type of arabic. The powdered
type such that Sigma Chemical sells cakes when mixed with water and doesn't
dissolve as well. One person mentioned finding the type of gum arabic they
wanted from an Indian food store.
One souce of Faure's, a variation on Hoyer's, may be in Spain. The webpage
is http://personal.redestb.es/entomo-praxis/Uk/informat.htm
To find the Faure's, scroll down the left frame and click on Chemical
Products. This webpage lists 17 ml of Faure's for 400 Pesetas. The page
says that in early 1999 there were 145 Pesetas to a U.S. dollar. I do not
know if it is legal to ship chloral hydrate containing solutions to other
countries.
Clark W. Beasley
Department of Biology
McMurry University
Abilene, TX 79697
USA
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