A technique for sending the image seen through a microscope over a distance to a television monitor. A television camera records the image, which is then transmitted by wire or radio to a remote site where the pathologist can examine the image as though she were looking directly through the viewing microscope. The microscope must be a special, robotically controlled device, so that the pathologist at the remote location can move the slide about and examine various areas, vary the magnification, change the brightness, introduce optical niters, and focus, just as though she were actually seated at an optical microscope.