Paul,

I only want to point out that microscopy started much earlier. Robert 
Hooke made a compound microscope in 1595. Antony van Leeuwenhoek made 
his discoveries starting around 1668. Van Leeuwenhoek actually coined 
the term "cells" in describing the microscopic appearance of cork. 

Interestingly, van Leeuwenhoek's single-lens microscopes were aboput 
ten times better in magnifiying power than the compound microscopes of 
the day. His lenses were of such excellent quality that it has been 
only with great difficulty that reproductions of his lenses have been 
reproduced in modern times.

For more information see:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html

Tim Morken, B.A., EMT(MSA), HTL(ASCP)  
Infectious Disease Pathology 
Centers for Disease Control 
MS-G32 
1600 Clifton Rd. 
Atlanta, GA 30333 
USA 
 
email: tim9@cdc.gov 
       timcdc@hotmail.com 
 
FAX:  (404)639-3043 


----Original Message Follows----
From: Paul Millikin <millikin@mtco.com>
To: histonet@Pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Histology: Science or Art??
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 17:25:16 -0700

-- 
Paul Millikin
Peoria, IL
millikin@mtco.com
Histology was born as a science, and is just barely past its 160th
birthday. Before that time, Science had only the most rudimentary 
knowledge about the structure of living matter.  Then in 1838, a 

German
botanist, Jakob Matthias Schleiden, proposed that all plant tissue was
composed of cells. 

The following year, a German physiologist and anatomist, Theodor 

Schwann,
of Scwhann cell fame, proposed that all animal tissues were also 

composed
of cells. 

That Cell Theory of Life was a major "breakthrough" at the time, 

causing
a scientific furore at least as exciting as the discovery of 

penicillin in
modern times.   

However, there were no tools ready-made fo studying these new 

discoveries. 
Microscopes were of poor quality and widely regarded as toys, so 

microscopic
optics had to be invented, and some high caliber science went into the
process. 

Similarly, every single tool used by each of us every day had to be 

invented
by SOMEBODY, and some of the finest minds in all of science were 

attracted to
that area.  For example, the first microtome was a straight razor, and 

the
earliest stain was carmine, which stained nuclei red and everything 

else pink. 
Nothing was known of how to fix tissue hard enough to permit cutting 

thin'
sections, and all the embedding media had to be discovered.  
Endless manhours went into finding stains better than carmine. 

Names like Zenker, Heidenhain, Abbe, Helly, Harris, Delafield, and 

dozens
more comprised scientists that served in the Histology Delivery Room. 

 The
list has since grown to include dozens, perhaps hundreds of the finest 

minds
in all of science. 

However, all of us who work in histology everyday recognize the art 

involved. 
On difficult days, some have even called it a black art. 

Clearly both science and art integral parts of the process, and are 

not
interchangeable.  When a brand new procedure is called for, Science 

rises to
the fore.  When a "drop dead gorgeous" slide is called for, Art takes 

the
lead. 

Paul Millikiin
millikin@mtco.com
Peoria, IL, USA#026#



 


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