For beautiful colors in near perfectly preserved cells and connective tissue, immerse carefully cut pieces, no more than 2 mm in least dimension, overnight in either Heidenhain's SUSA or Helly's fluid or Zenker's fluid without the acetic acid (which is the same as Helly's without the formalin). Wash thoroughly in water (tap water is OK) for several hours (overnight is sensible) and then dehydrate, clear, infiltrate, embed and cut paraffin sections.

After dewaxing and hydrating the slides, put them in an iodine solution (Lugol's, Gram's or 0.5% I2 in 95% ethanol), then in sodium thiosuifate (2-6%) to remove the brown iodine color. Wash in running tap water for a minute to get rid of the chemicals. (This step Is a must after any mercury-containing fix.) Stain by any good, interesting method (meaning almost anything other than hematoxylin & eosln).