Uses and Standardization of Stains 17 



In 1896 Dr. Grlibler had to withdraw from this firm and a former partner of Dr. 

 Griibler's named Schmid, became the proprietor. After retiring from this business. 

 Dr. Grubler started a laboratory of his own which continued for some time to supply 

 Dr. G. Grubler & Company with certain products. This laboratory was subse- 

 quently incorporated in 1897 under the name of "Dr. G. Griibler's mikroskopisch-, 

 chemisch-bacteriologisches Laboratorium," and was sold to Dr. HoUborn. The 

 company thus founded subsequently became "Dr. K. HoUborn & Sohne", and for a 

 number of years continued its relations to the Grubler company. It did not, how- 

 ever, supply the latter company after 1921, but began marketing such products on 

 its own account. 



This matter is gone into in some detail because from 1921 till about 1945 there 

 were two rival firms producing stains in Germany, the Dr. G. Grubler & Company 

 and K. HoUborn & Sons; and the relationship between these two concerns is not 

 generally understood. Each company made certain claims that are often inter- 

 preted as implying that it produced the only genuine Grubler stains. As a matter 

 of fact, neither company manufactured dyes and the actual claims of the two com- 

 panies were these: G. Grubler & Company claimed that they alone had the list of 

 commercial sources from which Dr. Grubler obtained his dyes some 40 years previ- 

 ously and the standards set up by him at that time; K. HoUborn & Sons claimed 

 that they were the only concern to produce the so-called "original Grubler prepara- 

 tions", these preparations being certain staining fluids and combinations of stains 

 (e.g., the Giemsa stain) first developed in Dr. Griibler's private laboratory. It will 

 be seen that these claims thus stated were not contradictory, but misunderstanding 

 sometimes resulted from the advertisements published by the two companies. 



The Grubler stains were pretty generally used throughout the 

 world until about 1916-18. The first World War changed the 

 situation, because the temporary unavailability of German stains 

 forced England and the United States to develop their own sources 

 of stains. The second World War had an even greater effect on 

 the situation; and some time either during the war or just after, 

 the two above-mentioned German concerns seem to have gone out 

 of business. There are still German stains produced, notably by 

 E. Merck and Co., and the Bayer Co., and they are sold at prices 

 with which American stains cannot compete in the world market; 

 but they hardly appear on the American market now and are ex- 

 cluded from that of Great Britain, both of which countries now 

 have well established stain producers of their own. 



It required some time after the first World War before the 

 biological stain production in other countries besides Germany 

 could acquire the prestige formerly belonging to the productions of 

 other countries. At first perhaps, there was some reason for the 

 unfavorable reputation attained by non-German stains. It natur- 

 ally required some time for the concerns just then entering the 

 field to learn to produce stains capable of giving the same results as 

 those obtained by the German product. As soon as the companies 

 had solved these problems, however, their products in general 

 were superior to those available before the war. In certain 

 quarters the prestige of the German stains still worked to the dis- 

 credit of the products of other countries; but before the second 

 World War began, the resulting prejudice had just about come to 

 an end. Although this prejudice exists no longer, special atten- 



