Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/405

INTO THE SECOND CENTURY biology, and other categories into which we fit our fragments of knowledge. She knows only the particles and their incessant interactions as expressed in phenomena such as magnetism, radiation, life, and death. 19 In search for broader knowledge and deeper insight into the nature of these "ultimate particles," the century-old Institute is one of the forward observation posts— an organization rarely equipped for the pursuit of the elusive bits of information which can, in time, lead to a better understanding of the causes and course, and the prevention and cure, of disease.

Writing in 1928, Dr. Esmond R. Long, author of a standard history of pathology, and himself a pathologist of distinction, ventured the opinion that "there is no present warrant for predicting any change so revolutionary as the cellular doctrine of the nineteenth century * * *. There is much to indicate that the modern spirit of pathology is expressed in organization and that present advance is being brought about more through well designed administration than that individual capacity which proved so fertile in the preceding century * * *. Capable administration and the recognition of fruitful projects, although less dramatic, have thus apparently become as important in the furtherance of knowledge in pathology as individual investigative originality." 20

Writing one-third of a century later, in his "History of American Pathology," published in the centennial year of the Institute, Dr. Long paid tribute to the Institute in terms that are reminiscent of his earlier description of the kind of organization which would become increasingly important in augmentation of knowledge of pathology. 21

In like recognition of the value of the Institute, the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, official publication of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, devoted a special issue to the Institute as it began its "second century of distinguished service." The special centennial commemoration issue contained seven scientific papers prepared by 16 members of the Institute start and scientists who had worked at the Institute. 22 This recognition of the Institute was typical of that of other publications in the medical field, including International Ophthalmology Clinics which dedicated its June 1962 issue to the Institute's 100th Anniversary. The issue, edited by Dr. Lorenz E. Zimmerman