This paper is a historical review of the development of the notion of superselection rule starting from the recognition in
1952 of the charge and univalence superselection rules. Some applications to environmentally induced superselection rules
in the last decade are briefly described.
PACS 03.65.Bz - Foundations - theory of measurement - miscellaneous theories
PACS 01.30.Cc - Conference proceedings
Paper presented at the International Conference «Mesoscopic Physics and Fundamental Problems in Quantum Mechanics», Rome,
February 14–17, 1994.