The original Mauveine was before long superseded, first by Hofmann’s Violet, and then by a very important series of violet and purple dyes known as Methyl Violet, with shades ranging from 6 or 7B for the deep, full purples, to the 6 or 7R for the very red shades. These violet colors have never been surpassed, or even equalled by any other dyes for brilliancy and richness, although, in common with almost all the other dyes of this class, they are not fast to sunlight. Another extremely powerful and brilliant color of this class, used considerably to this day although discovered nearly fifty years ago, is the dye often called, from its origin, Aniline Red. It was, however, named by the German manufacturers, Fuchsine, from its rich, full, crimson shades, resembling the deep tints of the flower, fuchsia, while the French, who discovered and manufactured it soon after the close of Louis Napoleon’s Italian campaign, called it Magenta, after the famous victory of that name. About this time some German chemists discovered and introduced a full, rich, brown dye, still largely used for dyeing leather (kid gloves and the like), and, naturally enough, gave it the name of Bismarck Brown. And at approximately the same date was discovered the very valuable blue dyestuff, perhaps the best of the whole class, with quite a range of full, deep shades, and with considerable fastness to light, called Methylene Blue. =General Properties.=—The early colors of this group are the dyestuffs properly known as the “Aniline Colors” because of their origin; although this name has been applied, loosely, to all of the thousands of artificial dyestuffs without regard to their source of composition. To the chemist, their chemical structure and their behavior toward reagents, such as acids and alkalies, naturally suggested the name “Basic Colors.” This means that they are substances with strong affinity for all sorts of acids, with which they form more or less stable salts, while they can be liberated from these salts by the action of stronger bases, such as ammonia, or the fixed alkalies, soda and potash.