Superbly photographed and presented - absolutely fascinating!
David
A Study in Scarlet aka There Will be Blood - images added
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
excellent work
I too am extremely impressed by the quality of your images and your information. It is just amazing how good the Victorians were with micro-technique and equally amazing how beautiful and intricate the capillaries in our fingers are.
By the way, microscopy of finger capillaries in living patients is one of the relatively few uses of microscopy in clinical medicine outside the pathology lab. It may be a little bit of a dark art since it relies on necessarily subjective readings of individual doctors, but some rheumatologists (arthritis specialists, who now look at fancy DNA tests to prescribe expensive custom engineered antibodies) still occasionally look at the capillaries visible through the skin at the base of the finger nails. Patients that have fewer, larger capillary loops instead of more, finer capillaries are at increased risk for internal organ damage from scleroderma and related arthritic diseases. Doctors used to use their opthalmoscope (designed for looking at the retina) in van Leeuwenhoek style (held very close to the observers eye and the subject) to do capillary dermoscopy as it is called. I haven't tried it for years. But maybe I'll take some shots through a stereomicroscope to illustrate what doctors look at.
Again, fantastically good and educational post. Keep up the good work.
By the way, microscopy of finger capillaries in living patients is one of the relatively few uses of microscopy in clinical medicine outside the pathology lab. It may be a little bit of a dark art since it relies on necessarily subjective readings of individual doctors, but some rheumatologists (arthritis specialists, who now look at fancy DNA tests to prescribe expensive custom engineered antibodies) still occasionally look at the capillaries visible through the skin at the base of the finger nails. Patients that have fewer, larger capillary loops instead of more, finer capillaries are at increased risk for internal organ damage from scleroderma and related arthritic diseases. Doctors used to use their opthalmoscope (designed for looking at the retina) in van Leeuwenhoek style (held very close to the observers eye and the subject) to do capillary dermoscopy as it is called. I haven't tried it for years. But maybe I'll take some shots through a stereomicroscope to illustrate what doctors look at.
Again, fantastically good and educational post. Keep up the good work.
old AO phase optics on Reichert microstar iv ('crappiest microscope ever produced by the hand of man' )
- Cactusdave
- Posts: 1631
- Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:40 pm
- Location: Bromley, Kent, UK
Thanks micro_pix and eward1897. Comments like these are really appreciated and make, what is very much a labour of love, worthwhile.
Just like to repeat this for anyone who is interested in the content of this thread and may have missed it:
Just like to repeat this for anyone who is interested in the content of this thread and may have missed it:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 9#228729[i][/i]As an aside I have a number of other injected and corroded slides, both the 'Hett style' and the 'Topping style' . They do make very interesting and informative stereo subjects. I should post some more, but I do think it's a shame to post images like these without some context and backstory. They represent something of a technical pinnacle in commercial slide making and for a variety of reasons, not the least ethical, we shan't see their like again.
David
Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear