| Date | 1882 |
| Author | Ehrlich |
| Contribution | Reported an improved method for staining the tubercle bacillus (and other acid-fact bacteria). |
| Reference | Brock |
| Notes | As a method for examining sputum, it signaled the start of a new era in clinical diagnosis. It relied on aniline water and methyl violet as the primary stain, followed by the use of acid to de-stain everything except the acid-fact bacilli. Because of later modifications it ceased to be known as Ehrlich's method, becoming known as the Ziehl-Nielsen method; see 1882, 1883. Brock gives an extensive quotation from Loeffler concerning this development, in which Loeffler notes that Ehrlich used aniline water instead of the ammonia that Koch had used, and fuchsin instead of methylene blue. Brock 1961 gives English translation of Ehrlich's article. Brock (1999) says Ehrlich started work on improving Koch's method for staining the tubercle bacillus on the evening of the very day of Koch's famous announcement of his discovery of the bacterium. |
| Category | Miscellany |
| Pathogen Class | Bacteria |
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