[Microscopic anatomy from the viewpoint of the macroscopic anatomist: the Vienna anatomist Joseph Hyrtl and his microscopic injection specimen]

Abstract

Mainly due to an intellectual opposition to microscopy the promising early investigations in this field had come to an untimely end resulting in a neglect of the microscope during the 18th century. In this situation micro-injected specimens were to become an important link on the way to the microscopical science of histology establishing in the first half of the 19th century. Starting without optical instrumentation on the solid grounds of visual experience injected vessels and ducts provided a pathway from well known macroscopical into unknown microscopical dimensions. Without changing their level of perception anatomists could look through a microscope with macroscopist's eyes. Under this aspect Joseph Hyrtl's specimens are not part of a systematic microscopic anatomy or histology but technically demanding preparations to study body morphology and function by comparative anatomy.