16 Biological Stains 



rooms of dealers, and if the demand had been only that of peace- 

 time, probably the situation would not have become acute for 

 several years. As soon as this country became involved in the 

 war, however, the demand greatly increased. Every Army or 

 Navy hospital had to have its laboratory; and because of the higher 

 degree of medical care given the men than in any previous war, 

 such hospitals and laboratories soon became quite numerous. The 

 demand for stains, therefore, broke all previous precedents and the 

 stock of German dyes available was no longer anywhere near 

 enough for the demand. Laboratory technicians soon were forced 

 to get familiar, with American dyes — and they learned, in the hard 

 way, that biological stains need standardization. 



After that war the demand for stains seems to have decreased, 

 although no actual figures are available. Then, gradually, during 

 the next 20 years, the demand increased as new laboratories were 

 started and new uses for stains proposed, but it did not reach a 

 very high figure until 1939. Then almost simultaneously with the 

 German invasion of Poland, the first marked increase in the de- 

 mand (since the previous war) was noted. Just why the increase 

 occurred then in America is hard to figure; but it is possible some 

 users of dyes became panicky for fear that the coming of war would 

 cause shortages in this field. No such shortage did develop, in 

 America, at least; and it is well that it did not, for as soon as the 

 U. S. Government, through Army, Navy, and Lend-Lease agencies, 

 began ordering stains on the war basis, the increase in orders 

 exceeded anything that had been previously thought possible. 

 By 1943 the demand for stains was fully ten times that of 1939. 

 It seems almost incredible to believe that any Government in war 

 should find it necessary to order any dye (even such a dye as 

 crystal violet) by the thousands of bottles; and the fact that such 

 orders were received again and again gives some idea as to the 

 number of field hospitals called for in modern warfare. 



COMMERCIAL SOURCES OF STAINS 



The early biologists naturally obtained their dyes from con- 

 cerns whose primary business was supplying such products to the 

 textile industry. This proved unsatisfactory because of the great 

 variation in the dyes thus obtained, even though sold under the 

 same name. To improve the situation. Dr. Weigert, in 1880, 

 advised a Dr. Georg Griibler, a student of Ludwig and Dreschel 

 at Leipzig, to concern himself with marketing anilin dyes especially 

 to use in microscopy. Dr. Griibler, accordingly, founded a com- 

 pany (first registered as "Physiol. -chemisches Laboratorium, Dr. 

 Georg Griibler"; subsequently known as "Dr. G. Griibler & Com- 

 pany") which originally dealt with stains and other physiologico- 

 chemical preparations, but later specialized almost entirely in dyes. 



