ANILINE BYES — LEIKEND 437 



colored with lilac aniline. It is not certain just what dye this was in 

 modern terminology, but it is believed to have been the same as aniline 

 violet, aniline purple, or mauve discovered by Perkin. Beneke's an- 

 nouncement was made in the form of an untitled letter to the editor of a 

 small journal and it is difficult to assess its influence. In 1863 W. 

 Waldeyer, also a German, began to use aniline dyes for anatomical 

 studies. He used such stains as aniline red, Paris blue, and aniline 

 violet. Soon other workers were experimenting with the new dyes. 

 In the United States the first worker to use aniline dyes for the 

 staining of pathological tissues was Joseph Janvier "Woodward 

 (1833-84) , a surgeon and brevet lieutenant colonel in the United States 

 Army. Practically all who have written on the history of stains and 

 staining have overlooked Woodward's contribution. He was an assist- 

 ant curator of the newly established Army Medical Museum in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, when he did his histological work. In 1864 he wrote 

 a letter to Eudolph Virchow in Berlin, the draft of which still exists 

 in the Medical Museum Archives, and it contains the following 

 passage : 



Have you been able to retain with any permanency the color of your carmine 

 preparations? Have you used aniline or any of its derivatives for coloring 

 microscopical specimens, or are you acquainted with any coloring material 

 preferable to either? 



Regrettably, Virchow 's reply, if he ever answered, has not been 

 found. During the following year, however, Woodward published a 

 note in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (vol. 49, pp. 

 106-113), under the title: "On the use of aniline in histological re- 

 searches, with a method of investigating the histology of the human 

 intestine, and remarks on some of the points to be observed in the 

 study of the diseased intestine in camp fevers and diarrheas." 



He began his paper with these words: 



Since July 1864 I have made considerable use of aniline colors in my histo- 

 logical studies and they have been extensively employed in the investigations 

 carried on under my direction for the microscopical Department of the Army 

 Medical Museum. As the use of these colors for the purpose of staining certain 

 parts of tissues and thus rendering them more visible appears to be unknown 

 in this country and, so far as I can learn from the journals accessible to me, is 

 imperfectly understood abroad, I have thought it advisable to make public the 

 method of using them employed in the laboratory under my direction. 



Woodward's first samples of dye were obtained from a Dr. Genth 

 of Philadelphia. He used fuchsin, a reddish dye, and a blue one 

 labeled Bleu de Lyon. He was the first American to employ aniline 

 dyes in histological work and was probably the first anywhere to use 

 them in pathological studies. His efforts unfortunately had little 

 influence on the development of staining techniques in this country. 



