Almost since its introduction by Feulgen and Voit in 1924 the plasmal reaction has been enveloped by an aura of controversy. A large part of the disparities reported seems to stem from efforts to improve on the original method by the use of a variety of fixatives. It is our purpose to describe a procedure for preparing tissues for sectioning which preserves the original disposition of lipides and at the same time yields histological preparations of superior cytological detail. The description of the technique is followed by a report of its use in the study of the normal distribution of plasmalogens in a variety of tissues. These observations are in accord with those based on fresh frozen sections, as in the original Feulgen-Voit technique. Finally a comparison is made with formalin fixed material in an effort to resolve certain discrepancies in the literature.Plasmalogens are generally described as phosphatides of the lecithin-cephalin type whose two fatty acids are replaced by a single aldehyde (plasmal) of similar chain length. This aldehyde is linked to glycerol by an acetal bond; it is the special reactivity of this bond upon which the plasmal reaction depends, namely hydrolysis in acid solution catalyzed by HgCl,, freeing the carbonyl group for reaction with fuchsin sulfurous acid to produce an insoluble purple complex.