PREFACE 



TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 



IT has been the intention in the preparation of this, as in former edi- 

 tions of this work, to give to students and practitioners of medicine, first, 

 the knowledge necessary for the making of autopsies, the preservation of 

 tissues and their preparation for microscopic study, and to outline the 

 characters and methods of study of pathogenic micro-organisms ; second, 

 to consider the nature of infection and immunity ; to describe concisely, 

 with such illustrations as seem necessary, the lesions of the acute infec- 

 tious diseases, and, so far as they are known, the micro-organisms incit- 

 ing them ; the various phases of degeneration and inflammation ; the 

 characters of tumors ; the lesions of the general diseases, of poisoning, 

 and of violent deaths ; and, finally, to describe briefly the special lesions 

 of different tissues and organs of the body. 



While the general aims of the book have remained unchanged, it 

 has seemed wise, in this more than in the earlier editions, to call atten- 

 tion here and there to the relationships of pathology to the allied phases 

 of biological science, and, where it might be done without hazard to the 

 more urgent practical aims of the work, to consider disease as an adap- 

 tive process, and to view pathology as one aspect of the diverse mani- 

 festations of life and of energy, rather than as belonging to a special and 

 exclusively human domain. 



Dr. Delafield no longer shares in the preparation of the work : so that 

 the writer, deprived of the wise counsel and large experience of the 

 senior author, is alone responsible for such alterations and additions as 

 have been made in this as in the last revision. 



The great and rapid accumulation of data in the wide field which this 

 book covers has made necessary the exclusion in large measure of those 

 phases of clinical diagnosis and practical bacteriology which are now 

 adequately covered in special treatises. 



The book has been largely revised. The section on immunity has 

 been entirely rewritten. Ehrlich's "side chain" hypothesis has been 

 set forth with considerable detail, as well as the new lore relating to 

 various phases of cytolysis. 



The references in foot-notes have been considerably increased. The 

 intention in these has been in part to indicate special studies or reviews 

 relating to the theme under consideration ; but more particularly to point 



