One encouraging feature of a decade which belatedly recognized the problem of dementia in an expanding elderly population has been the increase in research directed at both clinical and basic aspects of Alzheimer's disease. The contribution of neuropathology to this research has been pivotal, ranging from quantitative gross morphology to localizing immunocytochemical markers and fine ultra-structural detail. Neuropathology has in addition partially bridged the gap between the hospital ward and research laboratory by defining the extent of the disease process in the elderly population, and has contributed in no small measure to advances which are now on the verge of deciphering the molecular basis of the morphological stigmata of Alzheimer's disease, plaques and tangles. This paper reviews recent developments in the field against a background of the more traditional neuropathological techniques which were so successfully exploited to identify the disease by Alois Alzheimer at the beginning of the century.