On being a pathologist

Abstract

It has been almost 55 years since my first introduction to the science of pathology in medical school. In addition to my postgraduate training in pathology at Charity Hospital (New Orleans, LA). I moonlighted, as do most house staff, and also did autopsies on house pets for an academically oriented practicing veterinarian.Althoughmy first love has been research in the mechanisms of disease, especially neoplastic disease, I have always been very concerned about the training of pathologists for careers in academic pathology. My experiences and concerns in the latter area compose this short article. My becoming a pathologist resulted from a desire early in life to enter the field of chemistry, to obtain a doctorate in that field, and to conduct research and teaching in organic chemistry. Today, such an approach to an understanding of the pathobiology of disease might not appear to many in either field to be totally discordant; however, in the 1940s and 1950s there was little association between the fields of pathology and chemistry except in the diagnostic clinical laboratory. Even clinical biochemistry was then oriented almost entirely toward diagnosis with little consideration of directly applying any of the fields of chemistry, except analytical chemistry, to an understanding of the mechanisms of disease. My interest in chemistry was initiated by my grandfather, a pharmacist in Bayside, New York City. In 1940 I was 10 years old, and during the summer it was my job to assist in arranging various products on shelves,