Pathological technique; a practical manual for workers in pathological histology and bacteriology

Front matter

(W^ Baa

Book. M e 4

Copyright ft .

Preface To The Seventh Edition

The book has been rearranged in this edition with the object of making it more useful. Among other changes the postmortem technique has been put at the end. The revision has been fairly thorough, but not so complete as could be wished owing to the war.

Of additions, the following deserve mention: Goodpasture's acid polychrome methylene-blue stain for frozen sections of fixed tissues and also for demonstrating metachromatically the different granules in the islet and acinar cells of the pancreas; Graham's oxidase stain for the granules in the myeloblastic series of cells and leukocytes; Benians' Congo red method for the demonstration of spirochetes; Claudius' stain for flagella; and the approved method of classifying pneumococci with reference to serum treatment.

As useful procedures which hitherto have not been generally recognized, attention is called to the use of the safety-razor blade in section cutting, the employment of benzene in paraffin embedding, and Rubaschkin's method of fixing celloidin and frozen sections to the slide for staining.

Boston, Mass., October, 191 8.

Preface To The First Edition

This book is designed especially for practical use in pathological laboratories, both as a guide to beginners and as a source of reference for the advanced. We believe that the book will also meet the wants of practitioners who have more or less opportunity to do general pathological work.

Every autopsy presents for solution a problem which may be simple or complex. The known quantities are certain clinical symptoms and physical signs ; the unknown quantities are not only the gross and microscopic lesions that may or may not have given rise to the symptoms and signs, but also the etiology of the lesions and the order of their sequence. The solution of the problem often requires the highest skill in post-mortem, bacteriological, and histological technique, but in its solution lies the fascination of pathological work.

It has seemed advisable to us to present, so far as possible, a consecutive statement of the methods employed in solving the various problems that arise, so as to avoid the repetitions that necessarily occur when the three usual divisions of the subject are separately considered by different writers. It is hoped that this method of presenting the subject will bring the student to the realization that the mechanical performance of a post-mortem examination and the inspection of the gross lesions constitute usually only the beginning

of the solution of the problem, which should be investigated

12 PREFACE.

bacteriologically, histologically, and chemically as far as our present knowledge will permit.

We should particularly advise the routine bacteriological and histological examination of the more important organs in all suitable cases. Naturally, the autopsies in which the lesions are due to a single etiological factor are the most valuable and instructive for a clear understanding of the pathological processes present.

Besides the methods of post-mortem examinations and of bacteriological and histological investigations connected with autopsies, we have added the special methods employed in clinical bacteriology and pathology.

In the parts devoted to Bacteriology and to Pathological Histology we have not endeavored to make an exhaustive collection of methods and formulae, but rather to select those which have been found of the greatest service in practical work.