According to António Coimbra (1928-2021), Abel Salazar's university career is divided into four phases. From 1916 to 1926, he created and directed the Institute of Histology and Embryology. He produced microscopy works and philosophical essays and discovered the tanoferric method (1920). Between 1931 and 1935, he wrote articles on science, religion, philosophy of art and travel and discovered the Para-Golgi (1932). From 1935 to 1940, despite the scarcity of his scientific output, he carried out a detailed study of the Para-Golgi (1937). He wrote articles on the neopositivism of the Vienna School and Kretschmer's characterology and was involved in heated intellectual confrontations with António Sérgio (1883-1969) and Adolfo Casais Monteiro (1908-1972). In the 1940s (1941-1946) he directed the Center for Microscopic Studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy. He developed earlier work, and with the help of hematologist Adelaide Estrada (1898-1979) he obtained scientific findings on blood cells, publishing Hematologia – Ideias e Factos Novos (1944).