FOREWORD
TO THE
THIRD
EDITION
It
has
often
been stated that pathology
is
primarily
a
visual discipline.
The
observation,
not
always
meant
as a
compliment,
has a
component
of
truth,
in the
sense that
a
large segment
of
pathology
practice consists
in the
interpretation
of
images
of one
type
or
another.
The
magnification range
of
the
images that
the
pathologist
has
been asked
to
evaluate
has
increased exponentially
over
the
years,
from
the
gross
to the
microscopic, down
to the
ultrastructural
and
cytogenetic;
but the
basic
purpose
has
remained
the
same:
to
extract from
the
visible structural features
all the
necessary
information
in an
attempt
to
ascertain
the
nature
and
mechanism
of
formation
of the
abnormalities
present.
In
its
beginning,
the
imagery
of
pathology
was
exclusively
of a
macroscopic nature,
and the
expertise
of the
pathologists
was
once judged
on the
basis
of
their acumen
in
predicting
the
histology
on the
basis
of the
gross appearance
of the
specimens. Legends
were
built around this
prowess,
like
the
story
of
Karl Rokitansky looking
at a
cross-section
of a
pneumonia
and
being able
to
indicate which foci were composed
of
neutrophils
and of
histiocytes.
A
good measure
of the
importance given
at one
time
to
gross pathology
is the
fact that
an
integral component
of
every
major
department
of
pathology
was the
museum,
in
which
a
formally appointed curator (none more
famous
than Thomas Hodgkin) supervised
all the
activities leading
to the
selection, processing,
identification
and
displaying
of
selected specimens.
1
A
related activity, which
has
progressively replaced
the
actual museums,
has
been
the
production
and
publication
of
atlases
of
gross pathology. Some
of
these were based
on the
museum pieces
and
others
on
fresh specimens,
the
latter having
the
obvious advantage
of
rendering
a
more faithful
representation
of the
appearance
of the
'live' lesion.
The
importance
of
this material
in the
teaching
of
anatomic pathology
at
both
the
undergraduate
and
postgraduate level cannot
be
overemphasized, particularly
at a
time when
the
attitude
is
gradually taking hold that
the
examination
of a
gross specimen
is
simply
the
technical step required
for the
acquisition
of the
microscopic slides. Nothing
can be
further from
the
truth, either
in
surgical pathology
or
autopsy
pathology.
As
stated
in an
editorial appropriately
titled
'In
praise
of the
gross examination',
it is the
gross
aspect
of the
specimen that shows
the
size, form
and
nature
of the
process
so
that
it can be
understood both
in a
structural sense
and in a
clinical context.
2
For
some specimens,
a
careful
gross
examination
is
infinitely superior
to the
examination
of
random microscopic sections taken
from
that specimen. Therefore, books
and
atlases that display
in an
optimal fashion
the
features
of
these
specimens
are
crucial
to the
specialty,
and I
dare
say
they will remain
so
long after
the
genetic
background
of all
human diseases
has
been determined. Alas,
it is not
easy
to
produce such
a
work. First
of
all,
it
takes
a
place that handles
a
wide range
of
specimens
in
order
to
select those
that
are
most representative
of the
conditions being
depicted.
Secondly,
it
needs
a
prosecutor
who
handles those specimens,
as
Arthur Hertig once
put it,
'with loving care'. Thirdly,
it
takes
a
photographer
who is not
only technically skilled
but who
also
has an
aesthetic feeling
for
those
specimens. Unfortunately, these desiderata
are
rarely found together. Regarding
the
latter aspect,
it
has
been stated
in
frustration that '[gross] photographs
are
often
not
taken,
or,
when taken, they
are
[often]
not
useful because
of
underexposure, overexposure, inappropriate lighting, poor selection
of
background,
or
blood-stained
or
blood-smeared backgrounds'.
3I
have learned
the
truth
of
this
statement
the
hard
way
when searching
the
photography archives
of one
pathology department
or
another
for
good pictures
for my
Surgical Pathology book, only
to
discard nine
out of ten of
those
pictures because
of
those
very
reasons.
It
was
therefore with great pleasure, admiration
and a
touch
of
envy
that
I
looked
at the
remarkable
collection
of
photographs that
Dr
Robin Cooke
has
been able
to
assemble
in
this Atlas.
The
V