Machine to find metaphase cells

The equipment and technique for automatically finding and recording the positions of metaphase cells on a microscope slide are described. A slide-searching rate of 1.3 cm 2 min −1 has been achieved and the positions of metaphase cells are recorded in a computer store at the above rate regardless of the density of cells on the slide. A further refinement is described which enables automatic selection of well-spread metaphase cells suitable for karyotyping.