Zi 
Variations of the old light-sectioning or “lichtschnitteverfahren,” 
which Stenger (1939) attributes originally to H. Pôtschke of Berlin in 
1891, has been used for contouring body form by Goldmann (1941), 
Lacmann (1950), Hertzberg and Saul in 1954, using a "contourometer" 
designed by K. O. Lange (Hertzberg 1972), Sassouni (1957), Roche and 
Wignall (1962), Pierson (1963), Holm and co-workers (1966, 1968, 
1970), and Lovesey (1970). The method is based on projecting parallel 
slits of light at right angles to the camera-subiect axis. The light pattern 
falling on a body part yields a form of contour map. The main weakness 
of this approach is that concave body surfaces and medial surfaces of 
the limbs are completely missed when the projected light slits are 
intercepted by more prominent parts of the anatomy. 
The prospects for using holography to measure spatial features of 
three-dimensional forms at close range have been discussed by Redman 
and Wolton (1968), Agnard, Boivin and Brandenberger (1970), Glaser 
(1970), Mikhail and Glaser (1971), Malhotra (1970), McDonnell (1971), 
Kurtz (1971), Mikhail (1971), Mikhail, Glaser and Kurtz (1971), Mikhail 
and Kurtz (1971), and O’Connor (1971). If the problems of relative 
motion between the object and the recording beam, the long exposure 
time, “speckle” and restrictions on object size can be overcome, the 
prospects for stereometric analysis in biology and medicine will be much 
brighter. To dáte, microscopic holography with ‘its improved depth of 
field is one of the most promising biomedical applications (Gabor 1948; 
Ellis 1966; Van Ligten and Osterberg 1966; Buckles and Cox 1968; 
Anderson 1969; 1971; Van Ligten 1969; Close 1971; and Lawton and 
Van Ligten 1971). 
Several authors have discussed the potential applications of 
holography in biology and medicine (Greguss 1968, 1971; Feleppa 1969; 
Fine and Klein 1969; Lundgren 1969; Redman 1969; Redman, Norman 
and Wolton 1969; Thurstone 1969; Zech, Siebert and Henze 1969; 
Metherel! 1971; Kessler, Korpel and Palermo 1971; and Sherwood and 
Thurstone 1971) but these reports are mainly addressed to the 
three-dimensional display rather than the stereometric possibilities. A 
noteworthy exception is the three-dimensional measurement of in vitro 
bone structures and prosthetic materials performed by Mikhail and 
Kurtz (1971). These authors have also reported the production of 
photogrammetric quality holograms from stereopairs, based on the 
holographic synthesis of stereo models as described earlier by 
McCrickerd and George (1968), Redman (1968), George and McCrickerd 
(1969) and Mulson and Polcyn (1969). 
The novelty of holography has precipitated a surfeit of predictions 
about its future implications for biology and medicine and many other 
fields. In the realm of stereometric analysis considerably more research 
and development must be done before holographic techniques reach the 
level of convenience, versatility and performance of other