[Gustaw Giemsa (1867-1948)--his universal method of microscopic dying and his contribution for tropical medicine and chemotherapy].

Giemsa was born on 20th November 1867 as a son of a foundry worker in Blachownia Slaska near Sławiecice in Upper Silesia ("Blechhammer bei Slawentzits"). His baptism certificate was found in "Taufbuch der Pfarrkirche Slawentzitz 1865-1875, Fol. 278, No.236." All the data collected indicate he was true to his land of Opole. He studied in Leipzig, later in Berlin. Between 1895-1898 he worked in South East Africa, at the time the German colony. From 1900 till 1933 Giemsa was a head of the Chemical ward of the Tropical and Maritime Diseases Institute in Hamburg with which he was connected all his life. He also travelled much and spent some time at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Giemsa's most important achievement was his method of dying. It is an important development of Romanowski's method and became important itself in research of tropical diseases of blood. Gustaw Giemsa accurately labelled dyes that appear at so-called ripening of methyl blue. He worked out technical details of obtaining asure-eozine mixture. The formulae for fying could be applied in swabs of a thick blood drop and in everyday procedures. Giemsa also recognised the walue of water PH used for dying and means for closing microscope preparations under a covering glass. Giemsa's dying method turned out to be applicable in protozoology, parasitology, haematology and cytology. In oncological cytology Giemsa's dying method is becoming more and more popular due to its technical simplicity. ...