Editing Gram stain (section)

== History ==
The method is named after its inventor, the [[Denmark|Danish]] scientist [[Hans Christian Gram]] (1853–1938), who developed the technique while working with [[Carl Friedländer]] in the morgue of the city hospital in [[Berlin]] in 1884. Gram devised his technique not for the purpose of distinguishing one type of bacterium from another but to make bacteria more visible in stained sections of lung tissue.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Austrian |first=R. |date=1960 |title=The Gram stain and the etiology of lobar pneumonia, an historical note |journal=Bacteriological Reviews |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=261–265 |pmid=13685217 |pmc=441053 |doi=10.1128/MMBR.24.3.261-265.1960}}</ref> Gram noticed that some bacterial cells possessed noticeable resistance to decolorization. Based on these observations, Gram developed the initial gram staining procedure, initially making use of Ehrlich's aniline-gentian violet, Lugol's iodine, absolute alcohol for decolorization, and Bismarck brown for counterstain.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Bartholomew |first1=James W. |last2=Mittwer |first2=Tod |date=March 1952 |title=THE GRAM STAIN |journal=Bacteriological Reviews |language=en |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1128/br.16.1.1-29.1952 |issn=0005-3678 |pmc=180726 |pmid=14925025}}</ref> He published his method in 1884, and included in his short report the observation that the [[typhus]] [[Bacillus (shape)|bacillus]] did not retain the stain.<ref name=Gram_1884>{{Cite journal |author-link=Hans Christian Gram |last=Gram |first=Hans Christian |title=Über die isolierte Färbung der Schizomyceten in Schnitt- und Trockenpräparaten |journal=Fortschritte der Medizin |language=de |date=1884 |volume=2 |pages=185–189}}.<br />English translation in: {{Cite book |last=Brock |first=T. D. |date=1999 |title=Milestones in Microbiology 1546–1940 |edition=2nd |publisher=ASM Press |pages=215–218 |isbn=978-1-55581-142-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5JHcs8w21gC&q=Milestones%20in%20Microbiology&pg=PA215 }}<br />Translation is also at: {{Cite web |url=http://www.hoslink.com/pathology/lab_general/history2.htm#gram |last=Brock |first=T. D. |title=Pioneers in Medical Laboratory Science: Christian Gram 1884 |work=HOSLink.com |access-date=27 July 2010 |archive-date=10 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810225816/http://www.hoslink.com/pathology/lab_general/history2.htm#gram |url-status=dead }}</ref> Gram did not initially make the distinction between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria using his procedure.<ref name=":2" />