[Histonet] (no subject)

[George Cole]

Histotechs;
It has been fun, the memories of ---ahem---shall we say-some of the more
experienced Histotechs among us---
those that have a pile of old pages below their calendars, torn off by
he rub of time----but this old tech, retired and knee deep in old
calendars, has a Wonder on me:   I don't see much of a grasp ---in the
patter of Cyber Keys---of just how rich a  turn over there has been in
those pages.  June, 1962, freshly thrust into Histology by hooking up
with a Neuroresearch lab to do the histo search through whole rat. Cat
and human brains by Doctors Robert S. Dow, leading neurologist, and Dr.
Olaf Larsell, Grand anatomist ( he was the one that standardized the
nomenclature of the cerebellum)---I---freshman histotech took to
looking for minute lesions of electrode tracts and reflected lesions of
upstream stimuli----doing Neutral Red and  Hematoxylin stains and Bodian
"Strong Silver Protein" studies on large portions of brains-and some
time the whole brains---of study subjects.  Downstairs in the hospital
proper, the histotechs were ever at their microtomes cutting paraffin
sections for a very limited range of stains----timid peons in the
shadows of  the Giants--- Medical Tecnicians-Tah Dah!!  But here I open
my eyes every morning on the HIstonet, with hundreds of histotechs
snowing the beejeemany out of me with the names of techniques and
findings and recipes a good portion of which are communicated with
little knots of  letters only----and I sort of duck  to keep from being
blown away by the stupendous riches of technique that are let loose
every day in those lines on my HP screen. (Ha!!---look at me---I did it
too---HP---2 letters behind which my just now growing experience with
computers hides) .  Anyway, if you care to know, you do not have to
genuflect before the MT's anymore.  They have machines with funnels on
them into which they pour what they don't especially know much
about----but the hands-on life of you Histotechs with immunos, wide,
wide studies of everything from ditsy bits of chromosomes to full and
complete lay outs of every tissue in captivity----folks-No longer do-you
need not to genuflect toward the MT Lab or huddle against the side of
the hall as one of Them passes. You are Histoetchs sifting through the
many furnishings of Life, hauling out data that even the Mayo Brothers
knew naught a wot of those 42 years ago when I first met the animal and
Human components coming off my rotary Microtome, Sliding Microtome and
Cryostat.  Walk head up, you New Ones----and when you meet a Med Tech,
head on in the hall,---flick imaginary lint off your sleeve, and with
head at a noble angle up,---murmer----"Don't  Know Ya,  Don't Know
Ya-----!"
georgecole <@t> ev1.net