The Differentiation of Living from Dead Bacteria by Staining Reactions
Abstract
Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://jb.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ Downloaded from http://jb.asm.org/ on December 10, 2011 by deepdyve Department of Bacteriology, Columbia University, New York Received for publication May 11, 1933 Apparently the first efforts to differentiate living from dead bacteria by staining reactions were made in connection with Metchnikoff's theory of phagocytosis which was combated in its early phases by German authorities on the ground that phagocytes were only scavengers which, although capable of ingesting dead bacteria, were not endowed with the ability to include and destroy living microorganisms. Metchnikoff himself showed as early as 1887 that anthrax bacilli when ingested by phagocytes gradually acquired, coincident with their disintegration, the property of staining with Bismarck brown (Vesuvin) whereas lving bacteria outside the cells and in the initial stages within the cells failed to take this dyestuff. In 1895 both Mesnil and Bordet showed that the natural affinity for methylene blue of living bacteria, outside the phagocytes and, in their initial stage of ingestion, inside the phagocytes, was replaced by an avidity for alcoholic eosin under the