Ehrlich’s first paper on the staining of specific granulation in white blood corpuscles by means of aniline dyes. His work immensely affected subsequent technical methods of staining.

Mast cells; see No. 548.1.

Foundation of the differential blood count technique.

Introduction of methylene blue in bacteriological staining.

In the above contributions to the knowledge of anemia, Ehrlich dealt in the first paper with the blood cells in anemia, and in the second gave the first description of the reticulocyte.

Includes the first statement of Ehrlich’s “side-chain” theory.

Ehrlich’s method of intravital staining.

Ehrlich was first to distinguish the aplastic type of anemia.

Extension of Ehrlich’s work on the differential blood count. By means of his methods of staining blood cells Ehrlich differentiated two types of leukemia, lymphatic and myelogenous.

Guttmann and Ehrlich demonstrated methylene blue to be lethal in vitro for the malaria parasite – the beginning of Ehrlich’s work on chemotherapy.

Ehrlich improved Behring’s diphtheria antitoxin through quantitative titration and established an international standard for this and other antitoxins. This was the beginning of the concept of biological standardization. The first exposition of Ehrlich’s side-chain theory appeared in this paper. Abridged English translation in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988).

In 1908 Ehrlich shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Metchnikoff "in recognition for their work on immunity." See also Nos. 14167 and 12438.

Ehrlich's "lock and key" theory of antibody antigen relationship, or interaction, in which the toxin molecule (i.e the antigen) binds to the cell receptor, and then the antibody binds in a lock and key manner to the toxin (antigen) to neutralize the toxin. 

Digital facsimile from royalsocietypublishing.org at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

In this paper on humoral immunity in humans Ehrlich addressed the bacteriocidal property of the blood, attributing that to antibodies and antitoxins.

Digital facsimile from pei.de at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

In this speech Ehrlich explained how the molecular structure of a drug can define its action and function. It represents his first attempts at modifying the molecular structure of a compound in order to tailor the in vivo physiological actions of a drug.

Digital facsimile from wellcomelibrary.org at this link. According to Ehrlich's Collected papers, this was reprinted from v., Leyden-Festschr., Berlin: Hirschwald, 1902. That may have been its first publication.

English translation as "The relations existing between chemical constitution, distrtibution and pharmacological action," in Collected papers of Paul Ehrlich (No. 86.4).

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Reprints Ehrlich’s writings on immunology to date, as well as three papers by Kyes (Nos. 2111-3). English translation, with two more chapters by Ehrlich and Sachs, and one by Ehrlich, New York, 1906.

The first account of induced microbial drug resistance. Ehrlich encountered induced drug resistance in microbes while researching arsenical preparations as cures for sleeping sickness and other trypanosome-caused illnesses. His paper, delivered as a lecture on Feb. 13, 1907, “explained how the widely varying stains of trypanosomes, which at first reacted with great sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents, gradually became drug resistant and how this property was passed on to their offspring for many generations” (Bäumler, Paul Ehrlich, p. 128). Includes an account of “Trypanrot”, by which Ehrlich succeeded in curing experimental trypanosomiasis. It was his work on this subject which led Ehrlich eventually to the production of Salvarsan. 

After many experiments on the action of synthetic drugs upon spirochetal diseases, Ehrlich and Hata in 1909 discovered Arsphenamine (Salvarsan, "the arsenic that saves", also known as “606”), an effective treatment for syphilis and trypanosomiasis. Arsphenamine was the first modern chemotherapeutic agent.

Manufactured by the German chemical company Hoechst, Salvarsan quickly became the most widely prescribed drug in the world. It was the first blockbuster drug, and remained the most effective drug for syphilis until penicillin became available in the 1940s. Digital facsimile of the German edition from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation, New York, 1912.

Ehrlich's discovery became the subject of the 1940 biographical film entitled Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet. The film was released by Warner Bros., with some controversy over the subject of syphilis in a major studio release. 

Introduction of neoarsphenamine (neosalvarsan).

Vol. I: Histology, biochemistry, and pathology, Vol. 2: Immunology and cancer research; Vol. 3: Chemotherapy. Most texts are in German. English translations are also published when available. The set includes new English translations of a few items. Volume 4, intended to contain Ehrlich’s collected letters and a complete bibliography, was never published. See M.M. Marquardt’s Paul Ehrlich, 1949, and E. Bäumler’s, Paul Ehrlich, scientist for life, G. Edwards transl., [1984].