Quantitative biological electron probe microanalysis with a wavelength dispersive spectrometer.

This paper describes the details of quantitative electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) performed with a wavelength dispersive spectrometer (WDS). EPMA was carried out on the giant neuron of a fresh frozen ganglion from the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. The freeze-dried cryosections were compared with sections of freeze-dried, embedded tissue. It was found, that in the ganglion there are two kinds of neurons with a different chlorine concentration of 11 mmole/liter and 32 mmole/liter. Isolated neurons in culture were shown to differ in elemental composition from those in the ganglion tissue.