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CHEMOTHERAPY 

 APPLIED CYTO- 

 CHEMISTRY 



ROLLIN D. HOTCHKISS,* associate, the rockefeller institute 



FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH 



THE FUNDAMENTAL procedure for determining the 

 properties of any object is to place that object in a series 

 of new environments and to look for changes produced thereby in 

 it or its surroundings. This procedure is a part of the innate be- 

 havior of primitive man — whether he be ancient aborigine or modern 

 infant — and is used, for example, in his examination of a new bauble. 

 The object is picked up, rubbed with the hand to feel its texture, 

 tested perhaps in the mouth, and withal scrutinized minutely in 

 various lights from various angles. A mentally competent primitive 

 soon builds up an enormous "library" of impressions of texture and 

 light-reflecting properties, etc., of the objects of his world, and uses 

 these to guide his activity. The steady accumulation — and, let us be 

 sure to add, the sharing — of these impressions has in time developed 

 large specialized bodies of scientific "knowledge." One of these, 

 more or less arbitrarily defined, may be called cytochemistry. Its 

 basic technique is "looking at" the cells of living matter with such 



* On leave of absence, Lieutenant Commander in the Hospital Corps of 

 the U. S. Naval Reserve, Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute. 



The views and opinions expressed here are those of the writer, and are not 

 to be construed as reflecting the official views or opinions of the Navy Department. 



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