RT Journal
A1 KILDUFFE R
T1 A new and stable solution of gentian violet for the gram stain
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1909
FD December 11
VO LIII
IS 24
SP 2002
OP 2002
DO 10.1001/jama.1909.92550240048002
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.92550240048002
AB Unfortunately for the simplification of an often complex problem, we now know that bacteria cannot be divided, as was once thought, into two great classes of Gram-positive and Gram-negative. It is true that many of the varying and contradictory statements on this head may be explained on the score of variations in technic, such as the length of time the stain and the alcohol were allowed to act, and the age of the culture experimented with; but it is nevertheless a fact that organisms repeatedly and consistently found to be Gram-negative will sometimes take the stain very well.Thus, Zimmermann1 found that all cultures of the Bacterium fluorescens stain well in young cultures; and Lehmann and Neumann2 found that three out of twelve cultures of the same organism stained beautifully, yet this is a species spoken of in the literature as Gram-negative. The latter workers also stained the bacillus of