Cinematography of skin capillaries in the living human subject

Lombard1 in 1911 showed that by illuminating the skin, the capillaries could be seen under the microscope. Many observations have since been carried out on the changes which take place in various diseased conditions. The possibility of studying alterations in the capillaries by means of cinematography first suggested itself to Krogh and Rehberg.2 They developed a method of taking pictures of the circulation in the capillaries in the tissues of Rana temporaria. It is naturally simpler to obtain records from the tissues of frogs than from human tissues since for this purpose a technique resembling that used in histological photomicrography suffices. In the human case transmitted light cannot be used. The method of illumination from above has therefore been universally adopted. This method is difficult because, by it, contrast and intensity of light are much reduced as compared to these qualities obtained by transmitted light. Weiss,3 in 1916, devised an apparatus for photographing human capillaries, and pub...