March 25, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



289 



For good measure, two instructive appendices 

 are added: A. Measures of Skulls of 93 In- 

 dians from Southern New England ; B. Bodily 

 Measures of 100 Female College Students. 

 George Grant MacCurdy 

 Tale University, 

 New Haven, Conn. 



THE PRODUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL 

 STAINS IN AMERICA 



Bacteriologists, during the war time, were 

 often hindered in important work, sometimes 

 involving matters of health control, by the 

 lack of dyes which they were accustomed to 

 use for staining. Some laboratories were 

 provided with a sufficient supply of Griibler 

 stains to use all through the war and are only 

 now running out of this supply; but others 

 were early forced to buy stains of American 

 manufacture. Some of the Ajnerican stains 

 were so poor as to be unhesitatingly con- 

 demned, others although enough for some 

 purposes were not suitable for the particular 

 objects of bacteriologists, while others were 

 so variable as to be unreliable. 



Now that the war is over, biological scien- 

 tists and their supply houses are faced with 

 the problem whether to urge the importation 

 again of German stains (which can now be 

 done only with special jiei'nait) or to encour- 

 age the establishment of an American source 

 of supply. As scientists we have no objection 

 to the use of German-made materials, and if 

 no other solution of the problem can, be found 

 we will be willing enough to consider the 

 Griibler stains standard again, as soon as they 

 can be freely obtained. From the standpoint 

 of national independence, however, it seems 

 well first to see what American producers can 

 do for us in this line, especially when it is 

 considered that certain stains are important 

 to public health and that we ought to be able 

 to count on an uninterrupted supply if there 

 should ever be a new national emergency 

 when importation would become impossible. 



The Committee on Bacteriological Technic 

 was asked by the Society of American Bac- 

 teriologists to look up the matter, to see 



whether reliable stains can be obtained in this 

 country and further to see what can be done 

 to protect bacteriologists against the unsatis- 

 factory stains that are put ujwn the market. 

 Upon looking into the situation we find that 

 all the bacteriological dyes, and nearly the 

 whole list of biological anilins are produced 

 in America in reliable form. The chief diffi- 

 culty is that there are too many competitors 

 in the field for such a small line of business. 

 Griibler apparently examined all the available 

 textile dyes and detei'mined which were useful 

 to biologists, standardizing them so that the 

 stains bearing his name were uniform. Then 

 he sold them at a high percentage profit, but a 

 perfectly legitimate profit, considering the 

 labor he saved biologists by the study he gave 

 the subject. A number of American con- 

 cerns, attracted by the great difference be- 

 tween the cost of crude dyes and the price of 

 biological stains, have thought to realize quite 

 a profit from the business, and have begun 

 the " manufacture and standardization " of 

 biological dyes — often to their own discom- 

 fiture, but always to the discomfiture of the 

 users of the stains. For a while there was 

 success for all, because a scientist would give 

 any firm a single test; but the result was a 

 needless duplication of dyes of the same 

 name, sometimes alike, but often difl'erent, 

 and also the introduction of new names for 

 old dyes. Although some of these concerns 

 are now going out of business, the confusion 

 still remains. 



Gradually the users, or at least the dis- 

 tributors, have been learning which houses 

 are manufacturing the most satisfactory 

 stains, and the less reliable manufacturers 

 have been forced out of the business. But the 

 present situation is such that the future im- 

 portation of German stains is no longer re- 

 garded as imiwssible. Fearing competition 

 from abroad as well as from the unreliable 

 concerns at home, some of the best producers 

 of biological stains are becoming discouraged 

 and are abandoning the effort to increase 

 their line. Under these circumstances the 

 only way to assure the continued domestic 



