Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 92. (Budapest, 1980)
TANULMÁNYOK - Miczbán Izabella: A sejtkép személetének alakulása a XX. században (magyar és angol nyelven)
display, the image of the object gets outlined point by point on the screen. The solubility is 1-2 nanometers. With the well-known, impressive and suggestive images of the scanning microscope, we can close that form of cell representation the qualitative morphological studies can provide for the view of the cell image. Morphological studies require patience, keen observation, continuous association and differentiation based on visual perception, exact judgement, and not the least, certain morphological intuition. These studies take much time and energy still they are subjective in character. The motive of old tendancies to make these studies more objective was not as much a conformist feeling for security as a claim to exactness. Objectivation meant to change qualitative data into quantitative ones. Galileo's principle came to prominence again: 'to make measurable the immeasurable". The quantitative histochemistry was formed from the trends examining the descriptive morphology and the biochemical analysis of structures and reached its heyday with microspectro-cytophotometrics (1950) based on Caspersson's classical researches. Basically it means the photometrication of the microscopic image. The cell to be examined can be conceived as a microcuvette, the absorbant substance in it as a thin solution. In case the wave length of the rays of light is known, from the absorption of rays we may conclude to the composition of our substance, qualitatively from the absorption spectrum, quantitatively following Lambert —Beer's law. [15, 17, 18] This process, having attained though a high level of instrumental analysis, could not satisfy the needs of quantitative morphology. For it became conspicious that the discriminative, relevant information depend not always on the quantity of accumulated substance but rather on its structural arrangement. It became evident that the microscopic image cannot be dispensed with, more plausible is to elaborate a fresh approach which would lend itself for further use. information theory is an apt form for this purpose. In this system the microscope stands for the medium of information, the object is the input, the image the output sign. In the making of microscopic image, light is the carrier of information and the codifiers are the frequence, the amplitude, the phase and polarization condition of light. Decoding is done by the eyes, information codified in phase and polarization condition are transformed by phase contrast and interference and polarization microscopes respectively, for the perception of the eyes, i.e. for decoding. As to frequence and amplitude, decoding is based on stained preparations. The image itself is made up from a definite arrangement of areas of different optical density. [3] The information arriving from the particular elements are directly connected by the cerebrum, like associations to the existing mind content. This information theory approach is in keeping with Nissl's equivalent image conception: the microscopic image displays not the object but quasi the biological analogy of the object. The Cytoanalyzer was the first instrument to attempt at transforming this biological analogy into an eiectrooptical one (1955) and it was transferred for computer analysis. [4, 5, 11, 21] (Fig. 1) The process of transformation is displayed schematically on figure 2. The light passes through the object to be examined and through a mechanic scanner, then gets to a light multiplier through the intermediation of which electric current is induced. Electricity is generated according to light passed through or light absorbed, respectively. The computer has to accept or reject the signs it gets according to the input data.
