Editing Pathology (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of medicine}}

[[File:Gorman and Feeley.jpg|thumb|260px|The advent of the microscope was one of the major developments in the history of pathology.  Here researchers at the [[Centers for Disease Control]] in 1978 examine cultures containing ''Legionella pneumophila'', the pathogen responsible for [[Legionnaire's disease]].]]
The study of pathology, including the detailed examination of the body, including dissection and inquiry into specific maladies, dates back to antiquity.  Rudimentary understanding of many conditions was present in most early societies and is attested to in the records of the earliest [[historical era|historical societies]], including those of the [[Middle East]], [[India]], and [[China]].<ref name="Long1965">{{cite book|last=Long|first=Esmond|title=History of Pathology|date=1965|publisher=Dover|location=New York|isbn=978-0-486-61342-0|pages=1+}}</ref> By the [[Hellenic period]] of [[ancient Greece]], a concerted causal study of disease was underway (see [[Medicine in ancient Greece]]), with many notable early physicians (such as [[Hippocrates]], for whom the modern [[Hippocratic Oath]] is named) having developed methods of [[diagnosis]] and [[prognosis]] for a number of diseases. [[Medicine in ancient Rome|The medical practices of the Romans]] and [[Byzantine medicine|those of the Byzantines]] continued from these Greek roots, but, as with many areas of scientific inquiry, growth in understanding of medicine stagnated somewhat after the [[Classical antiquity|Classical Era]], but continued to slowly develop throughout numerous cultures.  Notably, many advances were made in the medieval era of Islam (see [[Medicine in medieval Islam]]), during which numerous texts of complex pathologies were developed, also based on the Greek tradition.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Arcolani |first1=Giovanni |title = Commentary on the Ninth Book of Medicine Dedicated to Mansur&nbsp;— Commentaria in nonum librum Rasis ad regem Almansorem| work = World Digital Library| language = la| access-date = 2014-03-02| date = 1542| url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10672/| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140214144236/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10672/| archive-date = 2014-02-14}}</ref> Even so, growth in complex understanding of disease mostly languished until knowledge and experimentation again began to proliferate in the [[The Renaissance|Renaissance]], [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], and [[Baroque Era|Baroque]] eras, following the resurgence of the empirical method at new centers of scholarship.  By the 17th century, the study of rudimentary [[microscopy]] was underway and examination of tissues had led [[British Royal Society]] member [[Robert Hooke]] to coin the word "[[Cell (biology)|cell]]", setting the stage for later [[germ theory]].{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Modern pathology began to develop as a distinct field of inquiry during the 19th Century through [[natural philosophers]] and physicians that studied disease and the informal study of what they termed "pathological anatomy" or "morbid anatomy".  However, pathology as a formal area of specialty was not fully developed until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the advent of detailed study of [[microbiology]]. In the 19th century, physicians had begun to understand that disease-causing pathogens, or "germs" (a catch-all for disease-causing, or pathogenic, microbes, such as [[bacteria]], [[viruses]], [[fungi]], [[amoebae]], [[Mold (fungus)|molds]], [[protist]]s, and [[prion]]s) existed and were capable of reproduction and multiplication, replacing earlier beliefs in [[humors]] or even spiritual agents, that had dominated for much of the previous 1,500 years in European medicine.  With the new understanding of causative agents, physicians began to compare the characteristics of one germ's symptoms as they developed within an affected individual to another germ's characteristics and symptoms. This approach led to the foundational understanding that diseases are able to replicate themselves, and that they can have many profound and varied effects on the human host. To determine causes of diseases, medical experts used the most common and widely accepted assumptions or symptoms of their times, a general principle of approach that persists in modern medicine.<ref>{{cite book|last=King|first=Lester|title=Transformations in American Medicine: From Benjamin Rush to William Osler|date=1991|publisher=Johns Hopkins UP|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0-8018-4057-9|pages=27+}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Machevsky|first1=Alberto|title=Evidence-based Medicine, Medical Decision Analysis, and Pathology|journal=Human Pathology|date=2004|volume=35|issue=10|pages=1179–88|doi=10.1016/j.humpath.2004.06.004|pmid=15492984|last2=Wick|first2=MR}}</ref>

Modern medicine was particularly advanced by further developments of the microscope to analyze tissues, to which [[Rudolf Virchow]] gave a significant contribution, leading to a slew of research developments.
By the late 1920s to early 1930s pathology was deemed a medical specialty.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rothstein|first=William G.|title=Pathology: The Evolution of a Specialty in American Medicine|journal=Medical Care|date=1979|volume=17|issue=10|pages= 975–988|jstor=3763869|doi=10.1097/00005650-197910000-00001|pmid=386008|s2cid=23045808}}</ref> Combined with developments in the understanding of general [[physiology]], by the beginning of the 20th century, the study of pathology had begun to split into a number of distinct fields, resulting in the development of a large number of modern specialties within pathology and related disciplines of [[diagnostic medicine]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Race |first1=George J. |last2=Tillery |first2=G. Weldon |last3=Dysert |first3=Peter A. |date=January 2004 |title=A history of pathology and laboratory medicine at Baylor University Medical Center |journal=Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=42–55 |doi=10.1080/08998280.2004.11927956 |issn=0899-8280 |pmc=1200640 |pmid=16200088}}</ref>