The innovator: Aladár Aujeszky (Pest, 11 January 1869 – Budapest, 9 March 1933) was a medical doctor, veterinarian, lecturer in bacteriological diagnostics, professor, and director of the Institute of Bacteriology at the Royal Hungarian College of Veterinary Medicine (1907–1933). His name has been preserved in international scientific literature through the disease named after him. He was the first to describe the clinical picture of “pseudorabies” in 1902 and distinguished it from rabies. His books include: A baktériumok természetrajza (The Natural History of Bacteria) (1912) and Általános bakteriológia (General Bacteriology) (1924).
(Source: Hungarian Veterinary Pantheon in Hungarian)
Other names: Aujeszky’s method
Description: ”We spread a small amount of the spore-containing cultures on the cover slip, and while it dries in the air, we heat the 1/2% hydrochloric acid solution in a porcelain beaker over a Bunsen burner until bubbles form. As soon as the solution begins to smoke more heavily and bubble, remove the Bunsen burner and immerse the now-dry (unfixed) cover slip in the staining solution, leaving it there for 3–4 minutes. (Even one minute is sufficient, but for a reliable result, 3–4 minutes are better.) Then rinse it with water, dry it, fix it properly, and, after covering it with Ziehl’s carbolic fuchsin, hold it by the edges and, to accelerate the staining, heat it over the flame until it evaporates; and when the staining solution begins to steam, remove the specimen from the flame for a moment or two, then repeat this heating process two more times, after which allow the specimen to cool for another 1–2 minutes. Next, decolorize with 4–5% sulfuric acid; after rinsing with water, post-dye with malachite green or methylene blue for 1–2 minutes, and the preparation is ready. The entire process therefore takes no more than 8–10 minutes.” (Source: Aujeszky Aladár: Egyszerű eljárás bakteriumspórák megfestésére. Orvosi Hetilap, 1897. 41. 52. 625–626.)
Year: 1898
Interesting: “The idea for the procedure arose when Bütschli and Aujeszky were studying the effect of gastric juice on bacteria and discovered that hydrochloric acid influences the development of spores.
In accordance with the custom of the time, the procedure was published a year later in an international journal: Aujeszky, A.: Eine einfache Sporenfärbungsmethode. Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten. Section 1, Medical-Hygienic Bacteriology, Virus Research, and Animal Parasitology 1898. 23. 8. 329–331.
In issue 18/1898 of Veterinarius (p. 358), Z (perhaps Zimmermann?) describes the method – based on the German publication – that can be effectively used to stain the spores of anthrax, malignant edema, bubonic plague, and many other bacilli.
András Szüts in the chapter on the examination of bacteria and various fungi of his book on the methods of normal and pathological histological examination* (Vol. 150 of the Library of the Hungarian Medical Book Publishing Society), published in 1936 describes the Aujeszky method as an established procedure.
Source of the portrait: Magyar Állatorvosi Panteon
Source of the image: Szűts András: Az ép- és kóros szövettani vizsgálat módszerei. (A Magyar Orvosi Könyvkiadó Társulat Könyvtára 150.) Budapest, MOKTK, 1936. p. 239.
