The Elements of Pathological Histology

Abstract

THOSE who have watched the progress of pathological teaching, in this country especially, must have recognised that during recent years its scope has become much wider, or that at least there is a tendency towards broader conceptions. Cohnheim made an attempt to cast off the narrow fetters of Morbid Anatomy, and to instil into his pupils that wonderful enthusiasm which he himself felt for General Pathology, or, as we may term it, “Morbid Physiology.” His “Vorlesungen über Allgemeine Pathologie” still form a monumental record of what he has achieved, and his method must and should be the ideal of every teacher of pathology. Strange to say with his death things reverted into the old groove, and until recently, pathological teaching restricted itself almost exclusively to Morbid Anatomy. “Nee silet mors” is the motto of the Pathological Society: it is not appropriate, because pathology deals not merely with death; its soul and essence, however morbid, is “life.” Bacteriology, now a recognised branch of pathology, in spite of all the harm it has wrought, has achieved this, that it has carried us away from the dead-house to the laboratory, and has awakened in us the spirit of experimental inquiry.

The Elements of Pathological Histology.

By Dr. A. Weichselbaum. Translated by W. R. Dawson. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.)