The selective combination of physical, biochemical, and immunological prin ciples, along with new knowledge concerning the biology of cells and advance ments in engineering and computer sciences, has made possible the emergence of highly sophisticated and powerful methods for the analysis of cells and their constituents. This series on Cell Analysis is, therefore, aiming at providing the theoretical and practical background on how these methods work and what kind of information can be obtained. Cell Analysis will cover techniques on cell separation, cell identification and classification, characterization of orga nized cellular components, functional properties of cells, and cell interactions. Applications in cell biology, immunology, genetics, toxicology, specific diseases, diagnostics and therapeutics, and other areas will be covered whenever relevant results exist. Nicholas Catsimpoolas Boston, Massachusetts vii Contents Chapter I Quantification of Red Blood Cell Morphology James W. Bacus I. History .. II. Details of Red Cell Measurements. 3 III. Cell Sample Population Distributions. 11 IV. Discussion and Summary. 25 References. 30 Chapter 2 Laser Microirradiation and Computer Video Optical Microscopy in Cell Analysis Michael W. Berns and Robert J. Walter I. Introduction 33 II. Laser Microbeams 34 III. Computer-Enhanced Video Microscopy for Laser Microsurgery.