The Beginnings of Immunofluorescence

Abstract The Chinese have a picturesque cycle of designations for the succeeding years of their lives: the year of the tiger, the year of the rabbit, the year of the dragon. I suggest lightly that this is the hour of the fluorescent antibody. The last two or three years have seen the publication of several reviews on this subject; one of the latest, by Dr. Ernst Beutner, is in the current issue (1) of Bacteriological Reviews. Within the last year the Public Health Service has issued a handbook entitled: Fluorescent Antibody Techniques (Cherry, Goldman and Carski) (2). It is now no longer possible by an inspection of their titles to find papers employing immunofluorescence. Fluorescent antibodies have apparently been assimiliated into the general body of immunological methods and no longer merit special mention.