MOVING PHOTOMICROGRAPHY 



By W. N. Kazeepp 



[With 12 plates] 



For a long time the microscope served the purpose of observing 

 small animals, tissues, and cells without special preparation. The 

 desire to see more and to see better finally led the histologists to 

 invent all kinds of techniques of fixation and coloration. Then 

 scientists returned to the method of examination in vivo as more 

 certain. The perfection of optical instruments (homogeneous 

 immersion, black background, etc.), the progress of means for pene- 

 tration of the cells, such as the culture of the tissues in vitro and 

 micromanipulation, permits the experimenter of today to observe 

 the reactions of the cells during their life activities: Their direct 

 reactions, their movements, their divisions, and their difficulties. 

 Moving photomicrography lends to these new researches its clearness 

 and precision of analysis and also the possibility of making visible 

 all the movements of the ceU even when they may be too slow or too 

 brief for our eyes to see. In other words, it raises microscopic space 

 and time to our own scale. 



If moving pictures are the splendid achievement of the Lumiere 

 brothers, moving photomicrographs are that of another Frenchman, 

 Dr. J. Comandon. The actual realization is the termination of 

 painstaking research of more than 25 years. In these past 15 years 

 Dr. Comandon has found a valuable collaborator in the person of 

 De Fonbrune, who among other important discoveries in the domain 

 of mossing photomicrography has invented the micromanipulator 

 described in No. 2967 of La Nature. 



Little by little, the microscope and the apparatus for taking pic- 

 tures have been adapted to each other to result finally in the present 

 apparatus, a veritable little factory of very high precision. 



The apparatus conceived by Dr. Comandon (pi. 1) is composed 

 of four parts made as independent of each other as possible to 

 prevent vibrations communicating between each part and in par- 

 ticular to the microscope. The different parts are as follows: (1) 

 A large table on which is placed the Zeiss optical bench for photo- 



^ » Translated by permission from La Nature, No. 2971, Feb. 15, 1936, and No. 2976, Apr. 15, 1936. 



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