Keen minds to explore the dark continents of disease

The Massachusetts General Hospital is the oldest and largest of the teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. Founded in 1811, the MGH has witnessed many medical discoveries in 200 years that have led to improvements in patient care. Central to its clinical, educational, and research missions have been its pathologists and Pathology department. Beginning with the first clinician-pathologists in the mid-nineteenth century, MGH Pathology has profoundly influenced medicine at the hospital and throughout the world. This book tells the stories of the pathologists and the Pathology laboratories at the MGH, bringing notable events, discoveries, and individuals to life in print for the first time. The history of MGH Pathology over the past nearly 200 years has featured pioneers in the field of pathology, biomedical discoveries and clinical innovations. The present book features 25 chapters, including: • The various eras of the MGH Pathology, from the early surgeons and physicians who practiced pathology to the highly subspecialized pathology department of the present day • Biographies of Reginald Heber Fitz, James Homer Wright, Tracy Burr Mallory, Benjamin Castleman, Austin L. Vickery, Jr., Robert E. Scully, E.P. Richardson, Jr., Walter G.J. Putschar and Robert T. McCluskey • The disciplines of autopsy pathology, surgical pathology, neuropathology, dermatopathology, cytopathology, clinical chemistry, hematology, microbiology, blood transfusion and immunopathology • The Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital • Classical descriptions of acute appendicitis, acute pancreatitis, neuroblastoma, the origins of platelets, Castleman’s disease, mycoplasma, parathyroid hyperplasias and neoplasias, various ovarian tumors, neurological diseases, melanoma progression • Early residency programs in Pathology that trained generations of leaders in pathology in North America and abroad • Many major textbooks in the field, including World Health Organization classifications and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology fascicles In 1961, Joseph Garland wrote that the partnership between the MGH and Harvard “has created an atmosphere that excites keen minds to explore the dark continents of disease.” The phrase captures the story told in this book: many keen pathologists at MGH have worked toward a better understanding of disease in order to improve diagnosis and treatment for patients worldwide.