2 Microscopic Histochemistry 



Although there had been a few surveys of histochemical 

 methods pubhshed between 1920 and 1930, it was Lison^ 

 in 1936 who made the first real effort to organize all existing 

 knowledge into the science of histochemistry. By introducing 

 a systematically critical attitude into the new discipline and 

 by establishing the criteria of validity, he gave histochemis- 

 try the standing of a science and succeeded in clearing away 

 much pseudo-scientific rubbish from the path of advance- 

 ment. He fully deserves to be called the "founder of histo- 

 chemistry." 



Since the late 1930's histochemistry has undergone a re- 

 markably rapid development. A large number of important 

 new methods have been devised, and older methods have 

 been subjected to critical analysis. Histochemical methods 

 have become a routine in many laboratories of histology and 

 pathology, and the number of papers reporting results ob- 

 tained with their use has been increasing by leaps and 

 bounds. The rate of development is best reflected in the 

 number of histochemical review articles, chapters, and books 

 printed since 1940. Not fewer than thirteen such compre- 

 hensive works^'^ were published between 1941 and 1951, 

 while the corresponding number for the period between 1912 

 and 1940 is only six,^"^ exclusive of reviews on microinciner- 



5. Lison, L.: Histochimie animale (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1936). 



6. Gersh, I.: Physiol. Rev., 21:242, 1941; Click, D.: Ann. Rev. Biochem., 

 13:705, 1944; Gomori, G.: J. Mt. Sinai Hosp., 11:317, 1945; Dempsey, 

 E. W., and Wislocki, G. B.: Physiol. Rev., 26:1, 1946; GHck, D.: Tech- 

 niques of histo- and cytochemistry (New York and London: Interscience 

 Publishers, 1949); Glick, D.: Adv. Enzymol., 9:585, 1949; Holter, H.: 

 Oesterreich. Chem. Ztschr., 50:204, 1949; Bradfield, J. R. G.: Biol. Rev. 

 Cambridge Phil. Soc, 25:113, 1950; Bounce, A. L.: Cytochemical founda- 

 tions of enzyme chemistry, in Sunrner and Myrback, The enzymes (New 

 York: Academic Press, 1950); Gomori, G.: Microchemical tests for certain 

 substances other than fats and chromatin, in BoUes Lee, The microtomist's 

 vademecum (11th ed.; London: J. A. Churchill, 1950); Glick, D., Engstrom, 

 A., and Malmstrom, B. G.: Science, 114:253, 1951; Gomori, G.: Histochemi- 

 cal staining methods, in Methods of medical research (Chicago: Year Book 

 Publishers, 1951); and Pearse, A. G. Everson: J. Clin. Path., 4:1, 1951. 



7. Macallum, A. B.: Die Methoden der biologischen Mikrochemie, in 

 Abderhalden's Handb. d. biol. Arbeitsmeth., V-2, 1099 (Berlin and Vienna: 



