Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/60

BACKGROUND AND BEGINNINGS

rays of the solar beam. Pictures were "snapped" by opening an aperture in the light-tight shield with which the window was fitted.

The apparatus with which Surgeon Woodward and Assistant Surgeon Curtis worked was, to a large extent, of their own devising. At that time, all plates used in photography had to be sensitized, exposed, and developed while wet with chemicals mixed and applied at the time and place where the picture was to be taken. Projection printing had not been perfected, so that it was still necessary to expose the bulky wet plates in the size desired for the final print. With all these complications in photography, experience showed that better pictures were obtained by the employment of a "practical photographer * * * to manage the dark room" while the microscopist focused his "whole attention to the optical arrangements." Despite difficulties and complications, the pioneer photomicrographers made pictures which suffer not at all in comparison with those made today.