The contribution of microchemical methods of histochemistry to the biological sciences.

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Abstract
The most versatile quantitative approach, and one that can be applied to practically any substance or activity for cytochemical and histochemical study, is direct chemical analysis scaled down to the appropriate microlevel. The special applicability of the microchemical analytical techniques to the widest range of substances and activities assures the essential importance of these techniques, particularly as their capability is increased to deal more directly with individual morphological entities. The newer techniques and uses of fluorometry, luminometry and radioimmunoassay that have been given special emphasis recently, can be expected to accelerate the significant contribution of microchemical histochemistry to the biological sciences. In the future, the gap will continue to be closed between the high degree of chemical localization in biological structures obtainable by staining and other microscopic techniques and the degree of localization obtainable for microchemical measurement of substances and activities in these structures.