Sorry to have lost track of who posted the query and the response, but

>>I am making the Giemsa stain for Gaffney's Giemsa. It calls for Azure II 
eosin in dry form. Is this the same as Azure II from Sigma?<<

Conventional wisdom - which I'm inclined to advise following here - is that 
you should never prepare your own Giemsa stain (or other azure-eosin or 
polychrome stain) from dry chemicals, but buy it in alcohol solution from a 
supplier you trust. At least, that's what the great Giemsa masters I studied 
with in my youth (1960's) advised.

Azure I and Azure II are very old designations (before World War I) for 
trade-secret mixtures of the closely related thiazine dyes methylene blue, 
toluidine blue, and azure A, B, and C. See R.D. Lillie's Conn's Biological 
Stains, 9th (and lamentedly last) edition, 1977. 

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN