ESTABLISHMENT OF CYTO-CHEMICAL TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Introduction

IN"the latter half of the nineteenth century there developed a great wave of interest in cytology and histology. The experimental basis of this wave was the use of synthetic dyes for the staining of fixed sections. One of the main driving forces behind it was the desire to obtain information about the organisation of protoplasm, on both the physiological and chemical levels. On the physiological level many observations of great value were made; but on the chemical level very little of any value was obtained. The criticism of such shrewd observers as W. B. Hardy1 and A. Fischer2 made it plain that, with the usual techniques of fixation and staining with synthetic dyes, the results obtained were as much a function of the nature of the fixative, the physical characteristics of the fixed material, and of the technique of staining, as of the chemical and physical nature of the original protoplasm. Hence by the early years of this century the wave of interest in cytochemistry had lost much of its momentum, and was succeeded by a wave of interest in the experimental study of the living cell.