Cedarwood oil will make the tissue transparent but chloroform will not.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Both
• D. Neither

Answer: (A)

Clearing makes tissue appear transparent by replacing the alcohol in the tissue with a clearing agent that is miscible with the embedding medium and has a refractive index close enough to that medium to allow light to pass through. Cedarwood oil serves as a clearing agent and will render tissue transparent because it matches these conditions, facilitating infiltration with paraffin and producing a clear section. Chloroform, while a solvent in some older protocols, is not considered a clearing agent in standard histology practice for achieving transparency in this context, so it does not reliably produce that clearing effect. Hence, the statement is true.