Quirks of dye nomenclature. 4. Fuchsine: four shades of magenta.

Fuchsine, also called magenta, was the second coal tar dye to be produced after mauveine. Fuchsine is composed of a mixture of up to four triphenylmethane dyes that differ only in the number of substituent methyl groups. Unlike mauveine, fuchsine still is widely used today as a biological stain. We describe the progress of fuchsine from its birth as the second coal tar dye, through a variety of modes of manufacture and industrial application, to its current use. We discuss complexities of nomenclature and identification, and the hazards and risks of its various applications.