JPH0616037B

PURPOSE:To speed up the photographing of a cell, by providing a sheath flow cell having a spiral capillary passage to run a cell suspension as a sheath flow and a microscope and a photographing means to catch an image of the passage as a whole. CONSTITUTION:A pipe 10 for a cell suspension is linked to a sample liquid nozzle at the center of a sheath flow forming section 18 and a pipe 11 for a sheath liquid to a sheath liquid port 23. The downstream of the sheath flow forming section 18 is formed as a spiral capillary passage and a passage end 20 thereof is connected to a pipe pipe 12 for waste liquor. A cell suspension 7 is introduced from the pipe 10 while a sheath liquid 8 from the pipe 11 and led to the spiral capillary passage 19 with cells 17 aligned. When the cells 17 fill up to an end 20 of the capillary passage 19, a strobe light 1 is emitted from a white strobe light source 1 to take the whole image of the capillary passage 19 with a microscope 3 and a camera 4. Then, the image is recorded, for example, on a disc-shaped film.