Introduction

Nearly a half a century ago, quantitative organic microanalysis which deals with samples ranging in size from one to 10 mg. (1 mg. = 1 0 3 gram) was de­ veloped as a means of both convenience and necessity by Fritz Pregl, a physi­ cian, who was the medical examiner of the city of Graz, Austria. While work­ ing on bile acids, he obtained crystalline degradation products in quantities too small to be analyzed by the existing methods. Two alternatives were his, either to work for several years repeating his experiments on a much larger scale or to adapt the existing methods to the milligram quantities he had on hand. He chose the latter. He became so interested in this new field that he never returned to the work on the bile acids, but devoted his entire time to the development and teaching of microanalysis. Advanced students of chem­ istry from all parts of the world went to Graz to learn the microtechniques. For his contribution to science, Pregl received the Nobel Prize in 1 9 2 3 . 1 4 Arti­ cles relating to Pregl, as well as the roles played by Friedrich Emich and others in the development of this field have been published and to these the reader is re fer red . 2 8 ' 6 5 9 6 1 5 9 Early events of importance in the development of micro­ chemistry are shown in Table 1, while Table 2 shows the approximate size of the samples used for various determinations.