In gynecological practice, techniques of examination are being supple-
mented more and more by cytodiagnosis. Thus it has become necessary to
acquaint the gynecologist of the possibilities, use and Iimits of cyto-
diagnosis. Such is the purpose of the book "Gynäkologische Cytologie"
(Stall, Jaeger, Dallenbach, Springer-Verlag 1968). In general, the
practicing gynecologist will merely make the vaginal, ecto-and
endocervical smears and leave the diagnosis of them to a cyto- logical
laboratory. Only in rare cases will a trained and experienced specialist
set up his own cytologicallaboratory for outpatients, although such
undertaking would be very desirable for propagating the cyto- logical
method. The cytological analysis of unstained fresh smears during the
gyne- cological examination allows an immediate study to be made of
micro- f!ora and cellular atypia. F or such cytological studies
microscopes are employed in which a high-cantrast image of the specimen
is obtained by optical means (phase-contrast and interference-contrast
microscopy), thereby eliminating the need for fixation and staining. In
the nineteen-thirties the Dutch physicist Zernike investigated the
formation of high-cantrast images of transparent objects by modifying
the path of light. In 1941, his ideas were put into practice by the firm
of Carl Zeiss, Jena. Zernike received the Nobel Prize for physics in
1953. The method he had developed proved of great value in biology and
in medicine, above all for the examination of living objects. It was
intro- duced into gynecology by Runge, Vöge, Haselmann and Zinser in
1949.