REVIEW

ARTICLE

A History of the
Autopsy
A History of the Autopsy
A Review
Lester S. King, MD and Marjorie C. Meehan, MD

WHEN THE CHILD DIED, the attending physician was puz-

zled, and after expressing his sympathy to the parent he sought per-
mission for an autopsy: "To lose one's offspring is hard, harder to lose
a son, and hardest [to lose him] by a disease not yet fully understood
by doctors. But for the sake of the other children, I think that to
have seen his organs will be of the greatest utility." These words, apart
from their rather archaic flavor, might have been uttered today;
actually, they were written almost 500 years ago, at the end of the
fifteenth century.1
Why does a patient die? Was foul play involved or was death due
to natural disease? If the latter, what disease? How can we find out
about it? These questions, essential parts of our current medical thought,
were equally important 500 or 600 years ago when medical practice
and medical theory bore little relation to their present state. Yet even
long ago, helpful answers for these questions might come from an
autopsy.
The word means, literally, seeing for one's self, making a personal
inspection. Usage, however, has restricted the term to its pathologic
sense-ie, the dissection of the dead body to determine, through ob-
servation, the cause of death or the nature of disease.
Ever since man first became reflective he has asked the same ques-
tion, Why did the person die? The answers, however, have not re-
mained the same, for they depend on whatever view of the world the
questioner might hold. Historically, we can distinguish two main
opposing conceptual frameworks, the animistic and the naturalistic.
Animism
According to the animistic view, what happens in the world
around us is somehow controlled by personal beings or gods, or some
sort of spiritual forces, that stand above the merely "natural" order
of things-ie, they are "supernatural." They respond to man's desires,
Accepted for publication June 12, 1973.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Lester S. King, Contributing Editor, The Journal of the
American Medical Association, American Medical Association, 535 N Dearborn St, Chi-
cago, IL 60610.
514
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 515
November 1973

suitably channeled. Animism has many forms, but all have in common
the belief in unseen powers at work, superior to the ordinary or usual
sequences of nature, and subject to human influence.
We see a fine example of such animistic thinking in the Iliad. The
very beginning of the poem describes a plague that overtook the
Greeks beseiging Troy. Why and how did the plague arise? Homer
provided the answer: Agamemnon had captured the beautiful
daughter of a priest of Apollo and treated harshly the grieving father
who tried to secure his daughter's freedom. The old priest, deeply
offended, prayed to Apollo for vengeance. The god, in answer, sent
a severe pestilence that carried off the Greeks in multitudes. After
much consultation the Greeks realized that the cause of the disease
was the anger of Apollo, and they took suitable steps to appease him.
They returned the captive to her father, made suitable sacrifices to
the god, and thereupon the epidemic ceased.2
Clearly, an animistic philosophy of this type has its own notion of
causality, quite different from that to which we are accustomed. If
the will of Apollo brought about the pestilence, then any autopsy of
the victims would be quite irrelevant and not at all helpful. Animistic
philosophy does not promote the study of disease through post-
mortem examination.
The Iliad, written probably in the eighth century BC, described
events that occurred some four centuries earlier. Animistic thinking,
however, goes much further back and takes different forms, some of
them directly relevant to the history of the autopsy.
One such form is the so-called haruspicy, the foretelling of the
future through examining the entrails of animals. This practice,
which scholars have traced back at least 3500 years to ancient Babylon,
represents a particular example of divination, that is, the attempts to
foretell the future through communication with divine powers. The
communication could take specific forms such as omens or portents
which the specially trained auger could interpret. One form of communi-
cation lay through examining the entrails (especially the liver) of
certain animals. As with other omens the entrails supposedly con-
tained a cryptic message of a god. The interpreter-in Roman times
called the haruspex-was able to read the message and transmit it to
the social group.
Hepatoscopy or haruspicy, the process of divination by examining
the liver or other organs of sacrificial animals, was widespread in the
ancient world, and can be traced to the time of Sargon I of Babylon
(perhaps 3500 BC). Models of the liver with diagrammatic markings
516 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

for the instruction of the diviners have been found in many places.
The theory seemed to be that the god who accepted the sacrifice
identified himself with the spirit of the animal. The god's intentions
were reflected especially in the liver, considered the seat of the soul.
The diviner, by studying hepatic morphology, could perceive and
interpret the intentions, and therefore could predict the future. In-
terpretations might proceed along the lines such as these: An inversion
of the usual lobular proportion meant an inversion of the "natural
order" as, that a servant could control the master or the son be exalted
above the father; if the hepatic vein were defective on the left, this
would mean that the downfall of the enemy's army is likely.3
Through rites such as haruspicy, the ancients learned a great deal
about normal and abnormal anatomy. We must realize, however, that
this information had a specific religious orientation and was not in
any way directed toward the understanding of disease. Yet the informa-
tion gradually accumulated and eventually did become relevant to
autopsy performance.
Animistic philosophy thus contributed in an oblique way to our
knowledge of pathology. Additional information came from empirical
activities having to do with gathering and preparation of food. Sigerist
has commented, "In all archaic civilizations the chief sources of
anatomical knowledge were the kitchen and the cult." 4 Certainly, the
early hunters, butchers and cooks learned a great deal about animal
anatomy. Although this knowledge gained in a purely empirical fashion
was not oriented to the understanding of disease, the informa-
tion thus gathered, like that from haruspicy, did eventually accumulate
to play a role in the autopsy, when the time finally became ripe.
During the Talmudic period the Jews developed considerable knowl-
edge of anatomy and pathology from the examination of slaughtered
animals. The Bible states. "Thou shalt not eat of anything that dyeth
of itself." However, as time passed, the simple rule of not eating
that which died of itself was elaborated and the rabbis examined all
slaughtered animals for signs of disease, paying especial attention
to the condition of the lungs, mieninges and pericardium. Procedures
originally having a religious background thus contributed to the back-
ground knowledge of normal and abnormal anatomy.
Naturalism and Scientific Beginnings
In contrast to animism in its numerous manifestations, a naturalistic
philosophy represents true protoscience. Hippocrates (468-377 BC)
emphasized that disease resulted from "natural" causes and was not
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 517
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due to divine or supernatural origin. Naturalistic thinking dealt with

the realm of nature, the domain connected with "laws" and depend-
able sequences, with cause and effect that are intelligible to reason
and in which caprice and willfulness play no part. Hippocrates was
the first great naturalistic physician and his concepts determined the
course of scientific medicine ever after.
But medicine, even when pursuing naturalistic philosophy, did not
immediately find a place for the autopsy. Indeed, after Hippocrates
almost eighteen hundred years elapsed before the autopsy be-
came a force in pathology. To explain this phenomenon fully would
require a whole text of medical history, but we can perhaps furnish a
key with the Greek concept of "physiology," which had a meaning
quite different from its present connotation. The Greeks, who con-
tributed so much to medical scienCe, built their doctrine on the study
of nature-the physis. "Physiology" for them was the science of
nature, the description and explanation of natural occurrences,
of what happens. It embraced what we today would call "natural
science," such as physics, anatomy or physiology (in its modern nar-
row sense). All these came under the study of nature-ie, "physiology"
in the Greek sense.
The structure of living creatures-anatomy-formed an impor-
tant part of natural science and received considerable attention
from Greek philosophers. But anatomical studies, particularly in ani-
mals and to a much lesser degree in man, were largely what we could
call an academic discipline or "pure science," not primarily directed
to the understanding of disease.
Anatomy played but a small part in early Greek medical theory.
The Greeks explained disease largely by the humors: disease resulted
from disturbed proportions in the observed-and hypothetical-
fluid components of the body. The solid' components, the very aspect
to which dissection attended, had only a small role. Of course, in
some aspects of disease, especially in some surgical conditions,
anatomical disturbances might be so striking that they could not be
ignored. But in general, ancient study of disease did not stress the
solid organs, the anatomical structure, nor the changes therein. Until
theories of disease took deliberate account of structural change, the
autopsy had little place in medicine.
Anatomical knowledge, however, continued to increase slowly in the
ancient world, but had little impact on medical theory until the late
Middle Ages. In Egypt embalming had been practiced from an early
time. The embalmers, who were probably of a low social class, re-
 518 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

moved the internal organs and must have made observations of the
normal and the deviations therefrom. But apparently they did not
communicate their observations to the priests or other upper class
individuals who might practice medicine or write about scientific
findings.
Available Egyptian records, such as the Edwin Smith papyrus
and the Ebers papyrus, demonstrate knowledge of anatomy, but
scholars believe most of these terms are derived from animal rather
than human anatomy.5 There is also considerable interest in bodily
structures in reference to wounds and fractures. But in reference to
"medical" diseases-believed due to magic and best treated by
further magic-bodily structure seems not to have played a part.
In all events, the Egyptians did not forbid the cutting of the human
body, and this may have established the situation whereby in the
third century BC dissection was practiced in Alexandria. Scholars
have debated at length whether the early Greeks performed human
dissections. Edelstein " has carefully reviewed the entire problem and
concluded that no human dissections were performed in the Greek
world prior to the third century BC. At that time, in Alexandria, it is
generally accepted that human dissections were performed with
official approval, both to determine the normal structure and the
changes made by disease. Herophilus (335-280 BC) was a famous
teacher in Alexandria who wrote a treatise on human anatomy,
describing among other things the structure which still carries his
name, the torcular Herophili. However, in regard to pathology he
accepted the dominant humoral theories and did not place much
emphasis on morphologic disturbances.
About a generation later Erasistratus (ca 310-250 BC) carried
out dissections and made observations about the effects of disease.
He noted, for example, that the liver of a man who died from
dropsy was hard as stone but in a man who died of-snake bite the liver
was soft. He largely abandoned the prevalent humoral theory in favor
of a solidist theory and realized that diseases were associated with
changes in the solid organs. The study of these was therefore worth-
while-a point of view that eventually gave significance to the autopsy.
In his long scholarly study, Edelstein concluded that human
dissection and possibly vivisection were practiced at least in Alexandria,
up to the time of Galen (130-200 AD). More recently, however,
Kudlein7 disagrees and maintains that the only dissections were
done in the third century BC. Galen deplored the lack of opportunities
for dissection and emphasized the importance of learning about the
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 519
November 1973

human body from any possible source. He observed wounded men,

practiced dissection of animals, especially those like apes which
resembled men, and told of examining two skeletons observed by
chance, one washed out of a grave by a flooding river, one of an
unburied robber picked clean by birds.
A catacomb dating from the fourth century AD, discovered in Rome
in 1956, contained many frescoes. One picture shows a large dark
figure, surrounded by smaller figures, one of whom points at a body
on the ground. The body appears to have a large abdominal opening.
Some observers consider this to be a picture of a surgeon perform-
ing an operation, but others thought it portrayed an autopsy or
anatomical dissection. The problem was extensively discussed 8 and
many interpretations made, but no definite conclusions were reached.
So we are left with the unanswered question of whether autopsies
were performed in Rome in the fourth century.
Medieval Period
Little information about autopsies is available for the early Middle
Ages, but for the later medieval period scattered references show
some degree of interest in autopsies. In the year 1111, in an English
chronicle, there is a report of a Norwegian king who returned from
Jerusalem. While stopping in Byzantium, many of his followers died
and he thought this was due to their drinking wine that was too
strong. A pig's liver placed in this wine was damaged. Then one of the
dead followers was eviscerated, and similar changes were noted in
his liver. Wolf-Heidegger9 comments that since this case was re-
ported without apparent surprise, it suggests that autopsies were
not unknown.
Roger Bacon (1214?-1294) and Arnold of Villanova (1235-1312) rec-
ommended the study of the dead body but did not mention any
personal experience. Further evidence of autopsies performed in
England in the thirteenth century is provided by a picture found in
a manuscript dating about 1290. This contains two inserted leaves,
with eight miniatures, one of which is apparently a picture of an
autopsy. Sudhoff 10 first described this in 1914, and it has since been
studied by various scholars.1" There seems general agreement that the
picture may have been painted as early as 1270 and does represent
an autopsy or dissection, although the interpretation of the actual
features remains in dispute.
Various other pictures apparently depicting autopsies have been
found in early manuscripts. These are well described by Wolf-Heidegger
520 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

and Cetto.12 Singer 3 has concluded that dissections were being done
in Italy between 1266 and 1275, and that the earliest dissections
were medicolegal. He pointed out that the University of Bologna was
largely controlled by the law faculty, who would probably seek
autopsies to help solve legal problems rather than to promote medical
knowledge.
A clear report of an autopsy in the medieval period is included in
Fra Salimbene's chronicle.'4 Fra Salimbene was a Franciscan friar
who travelled extensively in Italy and France and kept a detailed
chronicle in Latin which provides much information about the thir-
teenth century. In 1286 he described a period of severe cold, snow
and fog in Cremona, during which there were many abscesses and
deaths among both hens and men. A physician opened a hen and
found an abscess, or "vesicular aposteme at the tip of each hen's
heart." He then opened the corpse of a man who had died of ap-
parently the same ailment and found a similar lesion. Fra Salimbene
made no comments on this and expressed no surprise or disapproval.
Nowhere else in this chronicle did he describe any medical prob-
lems.
Another clear report is that of a nobleman, Azzolino, who died at
Bologna under suspicious circumstances in February 1302. The court
ordered a postmortem examination which was done by two phy-
sicians and three surgeons under the leadership of Bartolomeo de
Varignana, the professor of medicine in Bologna. Their report,
which is still extant, concludes with a statement, "We have assured
ourselves of the condition by the evidence of our own senses and by
the anatomization of the parts."'15
As we approach the Renaissance we find a complex situation. Some
scholars sought to recover the ancient learning, while at the same time
others searched for new knowledge. In medicine this involved the
empirical study of anatomy, as the single medical discipline capable
of precise investigation. The rise of anatomy in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries lies beyond the scope of this study, but other publi-
cations give a good review.16
In pathology the time-honored system of Galen was still dominant,
although soon to come under severe attack. As anatomical studies
progressed, the autopsy became more significant.
Religious and Social Attitudes
At this time there were still strong religious and social objections
to the autopsy. Although in the early years of Christianity there was
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 521
November 1973

no formal church prohibition, certainly the general attitude of church

leaders was unfavorable. Both Tertullian (160-230) and Augustine
(354-430) wrote strongly against dissection, apparently more on
humanitarian and aesthetic grounds than on any theological basis.
Vindician, a physician and friend of Augustine, is quoted in a tenth
century manuscript from Monte Cassino as saying, "It pleased the
ancient anatomist to examine the viscera of the dead to learn in what
way they died, but for us humanitas prohibits this."'17 There were no
official church decrees on the subject but at the Council of Tours in
1163 it was affirmed that "the church abhors blood." This was inter-
preted to mean that the clergy could not perform surgery on the
living or the dead. Since most physicians did belong to the clergy
this fairly effectively prevented autopsies, but did not absolutely
forbid them.
In 1299 Boniface VIII forbade the cooking of bodies to separate the
flesh from the bones. This had been done to bring home the bones of
people who died on crusades. Although the ruling specifically referred
to cooking the body, many people interpreted it to forbid any dis-
section.'8 Nevertheless, it was about this time that a few physicians
began to dissect and eventually the church attitude was modified. In
1410, Pope Alexander died suddenly and was autopsied by Pietro
D'Argelata. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) issued a bill permitting
studies on human bodies by students at Bologna and Padua, and
Clement VII (1523-1534) confirmed this. In 1556 Ignatius Loyola
was autopsied. Stones were found in the kidneys, bladder, and gall
bladder.19 It therefore appears that by this time autopsy was fully
accepted by the Catholic Church.
In fact, one autopsy had been performed in 1533 specifically for a
religious reason. According to the New World History, compiled by
Oviedo y Valdes, in the sixteenth century, there was born in 1533 in
Espafiola (now the Dominican Republic) a double monster, female
twins, joined from the region of the umbilicus to a point in the
thorax just below the breast. Of course, the infants were to be bap-
tized, but the priest was uncertain as to whether one soul or two
souls required baptism. The father reported that one would cry while
the other was quiet, one might sleep while the other was awake. Two
baptisms were performed, but the priest was still uneasy. When the
infants died at the age of 8 days an autopsy was done in the hope of
settling the question. Since two complete sets of internal organs were
found, it was decided that there probably were two souls. Chavarria
and Shipley, who located and translated this fascinating story, com-
522 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

mented that this was perhaps the only postmortem examination ever
conducted to study the soul of the deceased.20
Respect for the body was an important part of the Jewish tradi-
tion, since the Bible taught that God created man in his image.
Handling a dead body made a man unclean for several days, but
there were rules for his purification. Nevertheless, it was emphasized
that the body must be treated respectfully and buried promptly.
Even for a criminal put to death, hanged on a tree, "his body shall not
remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him
that day." These laws were interpreted by the rabbis to forbid post-
mortem dissection which would be a disgrace to the body. However,
it is recorded that about 100 AD the students of the Rabbi Ismael
obtained the body of a young harlot who had been executed and
boiled it in order to count the number of bones. They found 252.21
There is one passage in the Talmud stating that if an autopsy
would save the life of an accused murderer, it would be permitted.
Autopsies were otherwise not approved by Jewish authority until the
eighteenth century when Rabbi Landau was asked if it were permissible
to make an incision in the body of a patient who died of cancer, in
order to learn the proper therapy in future cases. Rabbi Landau
replied that autopsy is a desecration of the dead and is only permis-
sible to save the life of another patient immediately at hand, not some
problematic future patient.22 This ruling was apparently maintained
by orthodox Jews until the twentieth century when the Knesset, the
Israeli parliament, passed a law permitting autopsies under strictly
limited conditions.23
Some indications of the popular objections to autopsies may be
noted. In 1538, Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566), a scientist in Mont-
pellier, autopsied his own infant son and later requested that autopsies
be performed on his sister-in-law and his first wife. This is told in a
biography dated 1578, by his pupil Joubert, who comments, "a cette
epoque le public avait l'anatomie en horreur."24
Vesalius, the noted anatomist, who practiced medicine and per-
formed many autopsies, died in 1564 during the return from a pil-
grimage to Jerusalem. Many years later a biographer, Melchior Adam,
published a letter allegedly written by Hubert Languet in 1565,
stating that Vesalius had been forced to make this pilgrimage as
expiation for the sins of murder and impiety. O'Malley is convinced
that there is no foundation of fact for this story,25 but points out that
it may be based on the same rumor referred to by Ambroise Pare, who,
writing in 1573, warned against opening a body too soon and noted
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 523
November 1973

that "in this century it happened that a great anatomist . . . I say

great and famous . . . then a resident in Spain was ordered to open
the body of a woman believed to be dead of suffocation of the womb.
At the second cut of the razor the woman began to move and show
other signs that she still lived . . . the good master had to leave the
country . .. and being exiled, soon after died of grief which was cer-
tainly a great loss for the Republic."26
Jarcho has called attention to the problems of performing autopsies
in Germany in 1670. In a medical periodical of that year, there
is an autospy report with a comment, "the other structures could not
be examined because a female relative changed her mind. Our people
have a great horror of autopsies and very rarely allow them unless
special persuasion has been used." The editor of the journal added a
discussion of the difficulties of obtaining permission and some possible
answers to the objections of relatives.27
Popular reluctance for autopsies at a slightly later period is also
evident by the fact that, when in 1699 the Republic of Lucca estab-
lished rules designed to limit the spread of consumption which included
the recommendation of autopsies, the ruling had to be revoked be-
cause of the citizens' objections.28 Even today these attitudes are still
encountered, and further consideration would carry us too far afield.
Conduct of the Autopsy
The historian who tries to reconstruct old autopsy procedures has
great difficulty, for detailed written accounts exist only for relatively
recent times. We have not found records that enter into significant
detail prior to the late fifteenth century. When we study past autopsy
records we must appreciate certain limitations, since what the phy-
sicians saw and described was quite limited by what they knew, that
is, by the prevailing theories. Today we frequently hear that descrip-
tions should be "objective" and should be sharply separated from
interpretation which is admittedly "subjective." Such a principle,
however, is really an utter myth, for background theories, like
spectacles, determine what the observer sees. Failure to note par-
ticular features may be due to imperfect instruments-the naked eye
will fail to perceive what is quite obvious with the microscope; but
even more fundamentally the failure is due to mental set, which, in
turn, results from the prevailing medical concepts. The pathologist see
what he expects to see, and his expectations are determined by his
conceptual background.
Autopsy reports in the past, as in the present, paid variable degrees
524 KINGAND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

of attention to the clinical history. The "case report" might give the
clinical findings in considerable detail; but quite often the autopsy
findings will have but little reference to the clinical course. In com-
parable fashion the degree to which pathologic findings were ex-
pressly correlated with clinical data would vary greatly.
Quite often the examination was carried out only until the patho-
logist was satisfied that he had demonstrated the cause of death, and
then the dissection and the examination would cease. Sometimes,
however, the examiner noted the state of all major viscera in more
systematic fashion. Of course, the concept of what constituted a
"complete" autopsy changed in the course of centuries.
We can examine some autopsy records from the fifteenth through
the nineteenth centuries. The study of selected cases can provide a
synoptic view of autopsy procedure, a survey rather than a systema-
tic history.
The Renaissance
At the end of the fifteenth century an Italian physician, Bernard
Tornius, performed an autopsy, the manuscript account of which has
been translated and discussed by Lynn Thorndike.1 Tornius, judging
by his other writings, was a well-educated humanist, with broad
intellectual interests including philosophy, theology and physics. He
was also given to the scholastic type of disputation.
The autopsy was performed on a child, probably less than 12 years
of age. Tornius gave no separate clinical history but in the course
of his discussion indicated a few salient clinical data, including fever
(interpreted to be a "double tertian"), difficulty in breathing and
lassitude.
The introduction emphasized the usefulness of examining the
internal organs "for the sake of the other children" in a disease "not
yet fully understood by the doctors." Then, after noting the external
appearance, Tornius opened the abdomen and peritoneum "according
to rule." He noted the full bladder and then removed the colon,
ileum and jejunum, cutting them off at the mesentery. He found two
worms. The liver was affected by certain spots [maculis] like ulcers.
There was an obstruction, of a "viscous humor" that filled the cavity
of the portal vein [?vena cava] at the origin of the "emulgent veins."
The kidneys were swollen, as was the heart. The vein carrying blood
to the lungs [ie, pulmonary artery] was filled with a viscous humor.
Having seen these things, Tornius did not search further for other
findings, since in his judgment the cause of death was apparent. The
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 525
November 1973

description of the actual dissection takes approximately one text

page.
The "viscous humor" in the pulmonary artery was quite certainly
postmortem clot. The type of clot in the vena cava, however, is not
so clear, nor is the nature of the spots in the liver. Thorndike makes
the plausible suggestion that the child suffered from "multifold meta-
static abscesses of the liver, the result of septecemia or pyelophle-
bitis," but we can have no real assurance.
After the relatively brief description of findings, Tornius devoted
over four text pages to discussion, inferences and recommendations.
The worms were, he thought, quite unrelated to the principal
illness. The blood clot was apparently deemed the important feature
in the pathogenesis. "When transmission of blood through the chilic
vein and the pulmonary vein was prevented, ebulition [sic] and fever
resulted. And because in that blood there was much phlegm, that
fever was like a phlegmatic [quotidian] one . .
In the discussion, which reminds us of some of Moliere's satires, as
in Le me'decin malgre' lui, Tornius refers extensively to authorities
such as Galen and Avicenna, and with great subtlety argues various
possibilities in pathogenesis.
In the late fifteenth century Antonio Benivieni (1443-1502) did
much to promote the performance of autopsies and the knowledge
of pathology. A native of Florence, he was a cultured humanist as well
as a successful physician. In one of the classics of medical history,
published posthumously in 1507, he recorded a number of his clinical
experiences, many of which had autopsies. The publication bears the
title, De abditi's nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanatationum
causis-On some remarkable hidden causes of diseases and of cures
(shortened by Singer and Long to The Hidden Causes of Disease ) .2
The book is in the tradition of the so-called "century," that is, rela-
tively brief recordings of unusual cases, generally published in batches
of a hundred. The various centuries were primarily clinical reports
that often had recourse to autopsies to settle clinical uncertainties
and find the cause of death. They provide a major source of insight
into the contemporary medical practices and medical theory. Books
of this character were not infrequent in the sixteenth, seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries. Benivieni's book is an excellent early
example of this type of publication.
The 110 cases are all reported briefly. In about 15 instances auto-
spies were performed to find the cause of death. Sometimes Benivieni
himself performed the dissection, sometimes he was only an on-
526 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

looker. But invariably the pathologic findings received only brief

mention. Thus, he tells of a woman who had suffered for a long time
from intestinal pain and infrequent and painful bowel movements.
When she died and the body was opened, the intestine [locus not
specified] was constricted by a thick callus. Only a narrow channel
was left, so that the stool could scarcely pass. This brief statement
represents the whole pathologic report. In another instance the pa-
tient vomited almost everything that he ate and he wasted away from
lack of nourishment. The entire pathologic description reads:
It was found that the opening of his stomach had closed up and
it had hardened down to the lowest part with the result that
nothing could pass through to the organs beyond, and death
inevitably followed.30
From our present day standpoint these descriptions are certainly
inadequate, but we should try to study the Renaissance autopsies in
terms of the contemporary values. Benivieni was one of the leading
physicians of the period; he described autopsies in brief and laconic
terms. Therefore, laconic descriptions characterized the best clinical
thinking of the era, and formed a perfectly valid mode of communi-
cation with fellow physicians. The historian should not try to impose
later values on an earlier period. Apparently the brief references to
anotomic changes quite adequately served the medicine of that era,
even the best medicine.
Seventeenth Century
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries very many autopsies
were performed and recorded. One of the great medical compilations
of all time is the Sepulchretum of Theophilus Bonetus (1620-1689),
first published in 1679. A second edition 3' appeared in 1700, in three
folio volumes, and it is this which we have used. The volumes collect
over 3000 autopsies, reported in varying length from a few lines to
half a folio page or sometimes even more. Some 450 authors are
represented, ranging from Galen to the physicians of the late seven-
teenth century. All the outstanding physicians are included-Bartho-
lin, Fallopius, Fernel, Harvey, van Helmont, Malpighi, Paracelsus,
Pare, the Riolans, Sennert, Vesalius, Wepfer and Willis, to single
out but a few. The annotations are inconstant and range from a few
lines to several pages.
The work is a true treasure chest, but its wealth has never been
adequately explored. We must rest content with but a single example,
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 527
November 1973

reported under the heading of "Cachexia" within the broader cate-

gory of "Cachexia, Anasarca and Leukophlegmasia."32
The report concerns a 7-year-old girl who had shown signs of
"obstruction" in the lower abdomen, evidenced by swelling and firm-
ness of the abdomen and scanty urine. There was a "low" fever,
headache, with swelling of the face, and pallor, followed by pul-
monary "catarrh" on lying down, serous vomiting, swelling of the
hands and blackish thick urine. Convulsions supervened and she
died. The mother, who had had severe headaches in the past year,
and whose young son seemed to be suffering from the same disease,
wanted an autopsy. The autopsy report splendidly illustrates the
procedures of the time, as well as the conceptual set and doctrinal
background of the era.
The abdomen contained much serum, in which the intestines
were floating. The stomach and intestines were swollen with gas.
The liver was very large but entirely natural in color and con-
figuration [constitutione]. The spleen was normal. The kidneys
were three times the normal size [naturalibus triplo majores];
the interior showing no defect, the outside entirely destitute of
fat, and of varied color. Since from these [findings] the cause
of death was not known, the thorax was also incised.
The remaining findings may be summarized: The thorax con-
tained much fluid; the lungs showed "hardening" [scirrhosi] of the
right upper and left lower parts; the heart was larger than normal,
with abundant fluid in the pericardium; black clot lay in the right
ventricle, like a worm. The head was not opened because time was
pressing. The report embodied no discussion or notes. The case was
classified as "leukophlegmasia produced by disease [vitio] of the lungs."
A few points call for comment. The child seems to have had a clear-
cut case of acute nephritis, but this disease was unknown to the
seventeenth century physician. In the clinical history he noted the
separate features that to us can spell out the diagnosis, but he did
not place the findings into a clinical unity, nor did he pay attention
to the kidneys, even though they were considerably larger than
normal. The association of clinical data and anatomical findings
simply made no special impression on him. The time was not ripe
for such an association.
Instead, he expressly denied that the abdomen showed the cause of
the disease and-presumably for that reason only-he investigated
the thorax. There he found changes in the lung, probably broncho-
528 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

pneumonia, which he considered the hidden cause of the whole

disease picture. He paid attention only to what seemed to him
significant. We must not think of him as obtuse but must realize
that he labored with a conceptual background quite different from
our own today. Medical history has the function of showing how and
why the background has changed.
Eighteenth Century
In the eighteenth century, medicine acquired more sophistication
than in the seventeenth, and pathology made considerable advance.
The autopsy continued to play a major role. Hermann Boerhaave
(1668-1738) made a substantial contribution in two of his publica-
tions, published as separate libelli-today we would call them mono-
graphs.
The first appeared in 1724.33 Boerhaave emphasized the impor-
tance of the history. "Everything pertaining to the case must be
listed; nor that least thing neglected which a critical Reader might
rightly seek to understand the malady." Accordingly, he gave in
great detail the history of a nobleman, a great trencherman subject
to gout. Preceding the fatal illness he ate a most injudicious meal:
"veal soup with fragrant herbs; . . . a little white cabbage boiled with
sheep; spinach; and calf sweetbreads lightly roasted (or fried); a
little duck, thigh and breast; two larks; a bit of apple compote and
bread; and . . . dessert consisting of pears, grapes, and sweetmeats.
With his meal he drank a little beer and a little wine from Moselle."
Shortly after he felt that something "irritated the opening to his
stomach." After unsuccessful attempts to obtain relief by vomiting,
he felt a horrible pain and declared that "something near the upper
part of his stomach was ruptured, torn, or dislocated."
Suffering great agonies, he took a great deal of medication by
mouth, including many emetics and much fluid, but all without
relief. He passed very little urine despite the great amount of fluid
ingested. The sufferings were horrible and he died in agony, while
the physicians stood by, helpless and completely baffled.
The autopsy procedure, narrated at great length, fills almost six
large closely printed pages of text-a far more detailed description
than any in the Sepulchretum. The autopsy was carefuly performed,
stepwise, the incision beginning at the xiphoid, going down to the
pubis, "and then to the lumbar areas; then making four incisions
so as to injure nothing and to remove nothing from its position."
The different organs and the regions of the abdomen are described
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 529
November 1973

in variable detail, cursorily where there was little change, at length

where the appearance was abnormal. No organs were removed. Since
examination of the abdomen did not explain the clinical findings
"the true cause of the disease was believed to lie in the thorax."
Therefore, after the abdominal organs were all restored to their
"natural position," the thorax was carefully opened.
This was the first reported case of a ruptured esophagus. The thorax
contained over 10 liters of fluid material. The actual rupture of the
esophagus and the adjacent pleura, and the collapse of the lungs are
vividly described, as is the precise method of the examination. Ex-
cept for a small incision made in the esophagus, the organs were
neither incised nor removed.
A second case report,35 of 1728, also casts interesting light on autopsy
procedure. Clinically the case was a complete puzzle. Despite an
"exact account of all the symptoms obvious to the senses and dis-
played during the course of the disease, yet nothing was known of
the true cause until there has been an autopsy." The salient features
of the highly detailed history: a youngish man (age not given) had,
over a 10- to 11-month-period, a slow onset of symptoms, consisting
of pain in the left thorax, with annoying cough. The pain spread,
grew unbearable, accompanied by utmost difficulty in breathing and
severe cough. He died in intense agony, virtually of suffocation.
In performing the autopsy, Boerhaave examined only the thorax. He
described the careful incisions and the procedure by which he entered
the thorax, trying to preserve everything in its proper location. A
huge mass involved the mediastinum and thoracic cavities, com-
pressing the lungs and also the heart and vessels. The homogeneous
tumor was "white as purest tallow" and weighed about 7 pounds.
We can perhaps hazard the diagnosis of liposarcoma. Apparently,
only the tumor mass was removed from the body. After examining the
thorax, Boerhaave terminated the autopsy. He had found reasons
"sufficient to explain, without exception, all the symptoms," and he
"saw no reason for further dissection."
In the eighteenth century, autopsies were being abundantly per-
formed, and references to findings appeared in many medical texts
and learned journals. But with G. B. Morgagni (1682-1772) the
science of pathology reached new heights.85 The rationalistic ap-
proach that dealt largely with a priori concepts, that could find an
explanation for every phenomenon and could systematize every facet
of disease, had reached its climax with Boerhaave and his pupil
Gaub (1705-1780). Meanwhile an empirical approach, with its pa-
530 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

tient accumulation of data, was making slow but steady progress.

The Sepulchretum had offered vast quantites of autopsy observa-
tions but only minimum synthesis. Morgagni, however, crowning a
life-time of patient empirical study, not only gathered together masses
of pathologic data but connected them with clinical observation in a
way that brought new illumination into pathology. The clinical data
formed the framework and the anatomical findings furnished the
explanation. Morgagni avoided a priori speculations and kept quite
close to the observed data and to the inferences that followed quite
directly from the concrete anatomical findings.
From the work we learn much about the contemporary autopsy pro-
cedures. For example, a woman of 75, very fat, while "sitting very
intently at her domestic employments . . . felt something or other
move up and down within her . . . the house seemed to her to totter,"
and after "a very short stertor, she died." Morgagni performed the
autopsy the next day. The description of the autopsy and his com-
ments and analysis fill four and half printed quarto pages.36
In opening the body he noted the very thick adipose layer. He cut
through the cartilage of the ribs, which offered relatively slight resis-
tance, and removed the sternum. A large amount of fat lay in the
mediastinum, and the diaphragm was very high. The lungs were
"sound" but he noted plural adhesions on the left, posteriorly. The
pericardium, distended with blood, "resembled a spheroid," almost
"a span" [approximately 9 inches] in diameter. He made no mention
of removing the heart, but apparently examined it in situ. He saw
a rupture posteriorly, the size of a "lentil" and here the ventricle was
thin. In considerably more detail he described "a bone of more than
an inch in thickness, in the shape of half a circle, to which the mitral
valves adhered." He described aortic calcification and "bony" changes
in the arterial system. In the abdomen he noted the omentum and
the mesentery, spleen, pancreas, gall bladder (containing 14 stones),
and kidneys, describing them briefly, but he did not mention other
organs. Then he examined the cranium and its contents. Frontal
exostoses drew his particular attention.
The autopsy furnished material for additional studies. He removed
the kidneys, the aorta, "the part of the heart that was nearest to this
artery and the tubes of the uterus, which were of a white color, that
I might, on the day following, examine into some things which do not
relate to the disease." But what he did with these organs he did not
say.
Autopsies, at least in "private" cases, required express permission.
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 531
November 1973

The granting of autopsy permission was often specifically emphasized.

On the other hand, persons dying in the hospital might, apparently,
be dissected without permission, but primarily for the benefit of
anatomy students. For example 37 a woman suffered an attack of
apoplexy. After 3 days at home she was brought to the hospital but
died within a day. Morgagni was "at this time teaching anatomy in
the college . . . and this body was brought to the college, where the
greater number of its parts were dissected, but particularly the brain;
and this about the eighth day after death." There are many similar
instances.
Persons dying of violence were also brought to the college for anatomy
demonstrations. In all of these, where the dissection was primarily for
the sake of the anatomy, Morgagni noted any pathologic findings.
These he could add to other data, when specific pathologic condi-
tions were discussed. Incidental pathologic findings recorded, perhaps,
as curiosities, would have no great value until the isolated details
were integrated into some broader whole.
Nineteenth Century
Morgagni was indeed the high point of a tradition that had pro-
gressed steadily since the sixteenth century. But in the latter eigh-
teenth century new developments, closely linked to the French Revolu-
tion, introduced new changes into pathology and the conduct of
autopsies. We can regard Xavier Bichat (1771-1802) as a turning point
in medical history. In his short life he exemplified what we may call
the "complete physician," that is, in his own person he centered all
medical activities, both "preclinical" and clinical-anatomy, physiology
and pathology, on the one hand, and bedside care on the other. He
pursued them all and achieved distinction in all.
Bichat is best known as the so-called Father of Histology who
directed attention away from organs toward the components of
organs-the tissues.38 The bodily organs, of course, were obviously
composites, and the distinction between the parenchyma of an organ
and the framework goes back to classical times. But Bichat, highly
analytical, distinguished twenty-one different kinds of tissues in
the body, established fundamental differences between them and
determined many of their properties. He did this without any re-
course to the microscope, but solely by dissection and the use of simple
physical procedures and simple chemical reactions.
The study of tissues forms part of the science of anatomy. Bichat
was also a physiologist, concerned with function and the differences
532 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

between the living and the nonliving. And then he was a clinician who
worked assiduously in the wards and even more assiduously in the
postmortem room. In the year that he died he allegedly performed
some six hundred autopsies. But his interest in the autopsies went hand
in hand with his interest in living patients. All was linked into the
unity of clinical medicine.
In his final work, published posthumously, Bichat commented
briefly on the interrelation of medical disciplines. We should "dissect
in anatomy, experiment in physiology, follow the disease and make
the necropsy in medicine; this is the three fold path, without which
there can be no anatomist, no physiologist, no physician."39 The signifi-
cant feature here is the intimate connection between the clinical
study of patients and the autopsy. This point of view received
impetus from two major developments. First was the great growth
of hospitals in the eighteenth century: vast numbers of patients
crowded the wards and furnished a tremendous reservoir of clinical
material. Then, a new spirit of scientific curiosity, of scientific interest
permeated medicine.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had a great deal
to do with this, for battlefields create practical demands that must
find some sort of answer. But perhaps even more important was the
radical change in intellectual climate that swept away the stuffy
cobwebs of the old regime and permitted young eager men to rise
rapidly, to experiment, to perceive new problems and find new
answers. It is no accident that in the first third of the nineteenth
century France was the medical center of the world.
"Hospital medicine" was the road to progress, achieved through
large numbers of patients, carefully observed while alive, and care-
fully autopsied when dead. The same clinician who observed them
during life performed the autopsy. The correlation of clinical data
and autopsy findings, carried out on a vast scale, yielded magnificent
progress.
Paris abounded in truly great physicians who practiced hospital
medicine-Pinel, Bichat, Bayle, Corvisart, Laennec, Broussais and
Louis, to name but a few.40 Leading physicians, in their voluminous
writings, drew heavily on their autopsy experiences. They would, in
their discussions, provide some specific clinical history, then describe
the external appearances, then detail the examination of thorax,
abdomen and head, but in no set order. Organs were described at
variable length, depending on the amount of pathology and the char-
acter of the case. The authors of monographs and books tended to
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 533
November 1973

deal with specific topics, thus bringing to bear a large amount of ex-
perience on particular diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, pneu-
monia and "gastroenteritis." The spotlight rested on the diseases, and
the autopsies were among the tools for that study.
Frequently the descriptions would illuminate the actual autopsy
process as well as the attitudes. For example, Prost,41 a relatively
minor French physician of the early nineteenth century, gave equal
weight to the clinical observation and the autopsy, and both served to
clarify medicine. In his dedication, referring to medicine, he spoke of
"a science which must be based on facts, and which too often was
the object of vain conjecture." He criticized those who, in approaching
pathology, decided ahead of time where the seat of the disease lay,
and then examined particularly that organ. Any anatomical changes
found there were then interpreted as the cause of the disease and
further examination was deemed unnecessary. We have seen that even
Boerhaave might follow this method. Prost, on the other hand, de-
clared, "Instead of seeking the cause of disease in the organs presumed
to be their seat, I have tried to find out all the disorders of the organs
in the diseases, and the differences that can be observed in the fluids
and solids during their course."42 This we would interpret as a plea
for the "complete autopsy." In the preparation for his book, he per-
formed more than four hundred autopsies. None of these took him
less than "several hours" to perform, and some of them engaged him
for an entire day.
Yet Prost, despite his brave words, was by no means impartial in
his observations. He paid special attention to the mucosa of the entire
digestive tract. This, he admitted, was a "horribly disgusting" job,
but one that would some day provide an unshakeable foundation for
medicine.43 Prost thus was an early devotee of the school that as-
signed a special causal role to gastroenteritis, a doctrine that has
become especially associated with the name of Broussais, at a some-
what later date. Prost's autopsy protocols usually described the gastro-
intestinal tract in a detail considerably greater than for other
organs. Prost exemplifies the dictum that pathologists observe what
they want to observe, and that their perceptions depend on their
theories. The "complete" autopsy is indeed a figment of the imagina-
tion.
Medicine of the early nineteenth century forms an extremely com-
plex picture, one that is not as yet been adequately analyzed. Of the
many intertwined components we would comment briefly on a few
prominent strands.
 534 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

The correlation of the clinic and the autopsy was the great contribu-
tion of the eighteenth century, one that reached still greater heights
in the first half of the nineteenth. By correlating the clinical and
anatomical findings, physicians defined disease entities more sharply,
discovered new diseases, achieved greater precision in diagnosis, and
began to appreciate disease-as-process-ie, that diseases underwent
development, in which the time factor was important. Correlatively,
this approach sharpened the critical judgment of physicians and pro-
moted what is popularly known as the scientific spirit.
But certain things the hospital medicine did not do. It had no real
effect on the actual treatment of patients or, if you will, on the
concrete practice of medicine. And it had relatively little effect on
the basic conceptual foundations of medicine that had arisen during
the eighteenth century.
Microscopy
In the first half of the nineteenth century, however, other new
developments greatly enlarged the framework of medicine. What we
can call the basic or preclinical sciences underwent a sharp spurt.
Physiology and chemistry made great progress but even more impor-
tant was the development of the microscope which quite revolutionized
anatomy and pathology. Cell theory, the direct outcome of microscopy,
introduced a whole new dimension into the study of disease.
Microscopy for a long time was largely an academic and research
subject. At first the microscope constituted a research tool with which
a relatively small group of investigators made great advances, so that
new search for new knowledge became closely associated with
microscopic studies. The gross autopsy was the starting point, but
actual advances came with the use of the new technics. Microscopy
promoted not only superior analysis but experimental study as well.
As a result, basic pathologic concepts like inflammation, degenera-
tion, thrombosis and cancer began to take on more precise meanings.
As early as 1844 an enlightened pathologist, J. H. Bennett, recognized
the limitation of gross pathology which, he thought, no longer was
furnishing "fact sufficiently novel and important enough to advance
the study of pathology." But the microscope, and the burgeoning
chemical procedures could restore the postmortem examination to its
place of importance."
Some indication of this we see in the well-publicized conflicts be-
tween Rokitansky (1804-1878) and Virchow (1821-1902). Rokitansky,
alleged to have performed 30,000 autopsies, and probably the
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 535
November 1973

most capable gross pathologist in all medical history, was a late-

comer to microscopy. Although he did publish some microscopic
investigations, he never achieved that real competence which comes
only from a lifelong association with a discipline. Virchow, on the
other hand, 17 years younger, entered medicine at a more favorable
time. He grew up with microscopy and contributed greatly to its
development in a way that other pathologists could not match. Rokit-
ansky, skillful as he was in gross pathology, nevertheless failed
badly in his theoretical interpretations. Virchow, on the other hand,
was an outstanding contributor to the basic theories of pathology.
The traditional gross autopsy, with careful attention to clinical
aspects, still performed significant service function, but its research
capabilities became recognized as severely limited. Gross examination
of organs remained the mainstay of routine pathology and cemented
what had already been learned, but in regard to research it served
principally to show the path that further investigation should take.
The gross autopsy was a preliminary stage in promoting knowledge,
rather than the principal methodology, but it nevertheless continued
to fulfill its service functions, even though its role in research was
diminished.
Technic
Increased attention was being paid to the actual conduct of the
autopsy and the standardization of procedures. An important docu-
ment on autopsy technic is a little book by Virchow, originally
published in 1876, with an English edition the same year.45 The
autopsy had in large part been only a capricious dissection that came
to an end when some antecedent questions seemed answered. Progress
required some sort of systematization. Virchow, in giving details for
autopsy performance, described his own experiences going back to
1844. At that time, autopsies, performed principally by young
and untrained surgical assistants, were done with no regular method,
so that "it was a matter of difficulty to make any discoveries."46 When
Virchow became prosector in 1846, he insisted on regularity and
method and definite technic. The subject assumed particular impor-
tance in medicolegal autopsies, which required completeness.
As late as 1859, he declared,47 pathologic anatomy was only "a
supplement of the clinic. As a rule, the clinical teacher determined while
the patient was alive which organ was to be the object of investiga-
tion; and the autopsy likewise was usually confined to that organ, or
at least dealt with all the others only in a secondary manner." Virchow,
536 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

who wanted pathology to be a science in its own right, insisted that

all the organs of the body should be minutely examined. While he
ignored the comments of Prost, who over half a century earlier had
maintained the same point of view, his own examinations were far more
detailed than the Frenchman's. However, just as with earlier pathol-
ogists, his background knowledge dictated his procedures. Thus, he
declared of the pancreas, "The slight importance of this organ, in a
pathologico-anatomical point of view, causes its examination to be of
little consequence."48
Virchow's actual directions need not detain us. One typical protocol,
for example, takes up fourteen duodecimo pages. He measured many of
the organs but by no means all. No weights were given. The whole
procedure took 3 hours. Again, we can think of Prost, who, in 1802,
declared that 3 hours was the minimum time for postmortem ex-
amination.
An earlier book on autopsy technics deserves mention. Francis Dela-
field, the American pathologist, published in 1872 a volume entitled
A Handbook of Postmortenm Examination and Morbid Anatomy.9 It
combined directions for conducting an orderly postmortem examina-
tion with brief discussion of principal pathologic findings.
There have been many progressions in autopsy technics and many
manuals devoted to their exposition. Procedures changed; for ex-
ample, the degree to which microscopic study became a more
"routine" part of the autopsy, and the relations of gross and micro-
scopic pathology, would form a fascinating chapter in the history of
medicine, but one that still remains to be written. As accessory
disciplines became relevant to pathology, new methods of examina-
tion involved special technics. The history of their development lies
outside the scope of this paper. The recent volume, Current Methods
of Autopsy Practice,50 devoted mostly to describing current proce-
dures, also provides a brief historical resume, and gives a detailed
bibliography of works that discuss autopsy technic in which the books
by Hektoen, Mallory and Farber can be especially noted.
Twentieth Century
The present complexity of autopsy procedures is a far cry indeed
from the autopsies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, yet
the modern autopsy still serves a dual function. It must answer a
specific question-what is the cause of death of this particular pa-
tient? This aspect we call the service function of the autopsy. Then,
the postmortem examination may serve to advance general knowledge
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 537
November 1973

and contribute to the science of disease. In earlier times the ana-

tomical dissection was virtually the sole method of advancing the
scientific study of disease. Now, however, the dissection is merely
a starting point.
Early in the twentieth century, medical progress depended largely
on the bedside and the autopsy room. The good clinician paid
careful attention to the history, the physical signs and the course of
the disease. Then, if the patient died, the autopsy might confirm the
diagnosis or, if not, show the true state of affairs so that the clinician
could find out where and how he went wrong. From autopsy observa-
tions he could increase his understanding of the known and, if re-
search minded, find new paths into the unknown. The outstanding
clinicians generally spent considerable time in the autopsy room and
frequently were themselves no mean pathologists. The revered Sir
William Osler epitomized the best of this era.
The autopsy also served as an unrivalled instrument for education
at all levels, from the beginning student to the august professor. At
the same time autopsies created a direct link to research in laboratory
sciences, such as experimental pathology and bacteriology. "Clin-
ical pathology," especially chemistry and hematology, were also taking
on greater importance, but the available tests were relatively few and
they fitted in readily to the framework of knowledge dependent on
the autopsy.
Despite the rapid advances in medical science, all too much of medi-
cal education remained at a low level. The famous Flexner Report of
191051 helped to set higher standards-among which pathology and
the autopsy enjoyed a strong position. Largely as a result of Flexner's
studies the levels of medical education and hospital practice rose
sharply over the next thirty years.
Then the Second World War intervened, and 10 years after the
close of the war the autopsy came under severe attack. This extraordi-
nary phenomenon deserves a closer examination.
Decline of the Autopsy [?]
Following the Flexner Report a tide of improvements had set in.
While the detailed story lies outside the scope of this essay, a few
relevant features may be noted. The autopsy began to take an impor-
tant part in deciding hospital accreditation. The reasoning went some-
thing like this: good hospitals have a high autopsy rate; poor hospitals,
a low rate. Raise the autopsy rate and the poor hospitals will auto-
matically improve, for more frequent autopsies would stimulate
538 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

more careful diagnosis and, in addition, have important instructional

force. That a doctor "buries his mistakes" is a hoary jest whose origins
are lost, probably back in antiquity. But a high autopsy rate would
blunt the force of this comment.
American Board Certification brought about stricter standards for
the training of pathologists, so that the average level of competence
unquestionably rose. Training centered largely on the autopsy, al-
though surgical pathology became more and more important.
After World War II and the period of readjustment that followed,
changes occurred with explosive violence. We will note three signifi-
cant features.
For a variety of reasons, including stricter standards of accredita-
tion and enhanced public awareness, autopsy rates in hospitals rose
quite sharply. As a result the number of autopsies performed as part
of the "routine" hospital pathology service went up enormously.
This increased the burden on pathologists.
Furthermore, "tests" became increasingly important in medical
practice. They usually had genuine value, but in addition they be-
came more and more popular as a sign that practitioners were
"scientific." And when hospital insurance footed the bills, the clinical
laboratory became the financial center of the hospital, along with the
x-ray department. Since the conduct of the clinical laboratory de-
volved on the pathologist, he had less time for autopsy studies. And
since pathology residents had to learn clinical pathology, the time
available for learning autopsy pathology diminished.
Coincidentally, first in a trickle and then in a flood, government funds
became available for research-experimental research. Research
demanded publications. Publications in turn brought about professional
reputation, academic advancement, salary increases and, of course,
more research grants. As a result of these factors, pathology, in
academic circles as well as in community hospitals, was undergoing a
metamorphosis.
Shortly after mid-century, critical voices began to be raised, and the
autopsy became the focus of attack. In 1956 Isaac Starr published in
JAMA an editorial52 entitled "Potential Values of the Autopsy To-
day." In contrast to an earlier period, he said, the present era is
"characterized by an increased reliance on experiment as a means of
acquiring medical knowledge." Correspondingly, interest in the autopsy
has declined, starting with the professor whose chief interest lay in
experimentation and extending to the clinical staff. Since the per-
centage of deaths coming to autopsy was increasing, "The morgue is
Vol. 73, No., 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 539
November 1973

swamped with routine work. What used to be a rare privilege has

become a burden." Starr denied that "research of importance is com-
ing from studies being made at routine autopsies at present." And
as a corollary of the above statements, he queried why anyone would
advise a promising young pathologist "to spend much time doing
autopsies today." He pointed to the huge stack of accumulated records,
from which no valuable information emerged, and thought it
"ridiculous to continue gathering routine information of this kind."
As rememdy he made rather vague suggestions regarding changing
the character of the autopsy.
This attack, delivered by an internist (even though a prominent
one), aroused spirited rejoinders from pathologists.53 Without treating
the many replies individually, we can point out certain general features
of the rebuttal.
One line of defense lay in specifying the great medical ad-
vances of the previous 20 years that had arisen or developed through
autopsy studies-and the list of such advances is impressive indeed.
The autopsy, defenders pointed out, could still provide an enormous
amount of information. Moreover, the newer technics, such as histo-
chemistry, electron microscopy and hormone assays, could extend the
information to be gained by the autopsy. Indeed, to such an extent
is this true that "the autopsy, with increasing frequency, is assuming
research proportions, thereby demanding in its performance greater
skills and increasing expenditures of time and money."54
The devotion of department heads to research and the neglect of
teaching and service drew many critical comments. There were com-
plaints that new heads of departments often had little interest in the
autopsy and were too busy with research and administrative work to
teach. "The failure of the autopsy service to yield quick, easy, and im-
mediate rewards in the form of grants, publications, and promotions,"
when contrasted with experimental work, seemed one of the difficul-
ties.55
What is the primary purpose of the postmortem examination? One
writer insisted that is was "primarily" to check the diagnostic accuracy
of the clinical staff.56 The questions would then arise, how much time
and effort should be devoted to this particular purpose? Undoubtedly
Starr had a worthwhile point when he criticized the mass of useless
detail that accumulated in autopsy protocols. McManus 54 considered
it unwise to treat all autopsies alike. He, too, stressed the wastage that
occurred when every case receives a detailed autopsy. Instead, he
pleaded for a selection and recognition of two different categories
540 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

of autopsies-each with a characteristic procedure-one of "re-

search" caliber and the other "routine" (degree of detail not specified).
The discussion in 1956 did not settle anything, but from then to the
very present, scattered editorials, articles, letters and symposia have
dealt with one or another aspect of the autopsy.57 In 1965 the topic
again provoked attention through editorials and a symposium in
JAMA. Hazard,"8 for example, emphasized the great values of the
autopsy, but nevertheless held that their "mass performance" is "not
the proper end," and that there is little point in "merely increasing
the number of autopsies." Instead, like McManus, he pleaded for selec-
tion, and would distinguish the "research autopsy" and the "teaching
autopsy," and insisted on close collaboration between clinician
and pathologist.
The need for autopsies to check up on the actual clinical diagnosis
has been repeatedly stressed. Gall (writing in 1968) mentioned 59
that in 1912, in 1937, and again in 1960, when autopsy records were
examined to determine the range of clinical error, there was "approxi-
mately an identical percentage of diagnostic error." The reasons for
this surprise finding are manifold, but the fact remains that clinical
diagnosis needs postmortem surveillance. More recently, Bauer and
Robbins 60 again pointed to the discrepancy between the clinical and
the anatomical diagnoses.
There is substantial consensus that the autopsy has been an indis-
pensable research tool, an unrivalled teaching exercise, and an im-
portant check on clinical diagnosis. There seems a consensus, too,
that mere multiplication of autopsies will have little value. But if the
autopsy is important and if skilled pathologists are so beset with other
duties that the number of "routine" autopsies threatens to overwhelm
them, what to do about it?
One reasonable possibility: in the "routine" cases do only quick gross
examinations, or skimpy microscopic confirmation. A British patholo-
gist 61 had a concrete and helpful suggestion. He admitted the great
decline in the appeal that the autopsy was exerting in both academic
and hospital medicine. His solution was the introduction of "necropsy
technologists" trained especially for their task. The "necropsy tech-
nologist" is quite consistent with the American concept of the physi-
cian's assistant, at present a controversial institution. Whether this
will help resolve the difficulties, only the future can tell.
But important problems are never solved: at best they may hiber-
nate, only to reappear in the future in a somewhat different guise.
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 541
November 1973

In regard to the autopsy, perhaps a lesson of history can be sum-

marized in a quotation from a JAMA editorial. 62
It is a pernicious misconception that the mere performance of
postmortem dissection leads to progress in medical science . . .
progress depends not on the autopsy but on the person who is
examining the material. Those who believe that the more au-
topsies we perform, the more medical science will progress, are
pleading not for more autopsies but for more persons who can
profitably utilize the data of autopsies, persons who have imagi-
nation, originality, persistence, mental acuity, sound education
and background, the indispensable "prepared mind" without
which observations are quite sterile. It is a grave disservice to
confuse the performance of autopsies with the spark of insight
which the autopsy may trigger. We want the insight; and au-
topsies alone, no matter how numerous, are not the equivalent.
References
1. Thomdike L: A fifteenth century autopsy, Science and Thought in the
Fifteenth Century. New York, Hafner Publishing Co., Inc, 1967, pp 123-
132, 290-294 (Reprint edition)
2. King LS: The Growth of Medical Thought. Chicago, University of Chi-
cago Press, 1963, pp 5-11
3. Sigerist HE: Primitive and Archaic Medicine. New York, Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1967, pp 460-461 (In this connection, there is a helpful
discussion under: Omen, The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Eleventh edition, Vol
20. Chicago, Encyclopedia Brittanica Inc, p 103)
4. Sigerist 3 p 353
5. Dawson WR: Egypt's place in medical history, Science, Medicine and
History: Essays on the Evolution of Scientific Thought and Medical Prac-
tice Written in Honour of Charles Singer, Vol 1. London, Oxford University
Press, 1953, pp 47-60
6. Edelstein L: The history of anatomy in antiquity, Ancient Medicine:
Selected Papers. Edited by 0 Temkin, CL Temkin. Baltimore, The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1967, pp 247-301
7. Kudlein F: Antike Anatomie und menschlicher Leichnam. Hermes 97:78-
94, 1969
8. Proskauer C: The significance to medical history of the newly discovered
fourth century Roman fresco. Bull NY Acad Med 34:672-688, 1938
9. Wolf-Heidegger G, Cetto AM: Die anatomische Sektion in bildlicher
Darstellung. Basel, Verlag S. Karger, A G, 1967, p 7
10. Sudhoff K: Graphische Darstellungen innerer Korperorgane. Arch Ges-
chichte Med 7:367-378, 1914
11. Artelt W: Zum Thema Sektion, in Bild Sudhoffs. Arch Geschichte Med
45:370-372, 1961; MacKinney LC: A thirteenth-century medical case
history in miniature. Speculum 35:251-256, 1960; Bober H: A stylistic
analysis of the miniatures. Speculum 35:256-259, 1960
542 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

12. Wolf-Heidegger G, Cetto AM: Anatomical dissection in pictorial repre-

sentation. CIBA Symposia 5:124-126, 168-172, 1957; Wolf-Heidegger,
Cetto 9 p 36
13. Singer C: A Short History of Anatomy and Physiology from the Greeks
to Harvey. New York, Dover Publications Inc, 1957, p 72
14. Greco E: Studi e richerche su Fra Salimbene da Parma descrittore nella
sua cronica della prima necropsia fatta a scopo anatomopatologico nel 1286.
Minerva Med 52:3361-3364, 1961
15. Krumbhaar EB: History of the autopsy and its relation to the develop-
ment of modem medicine. Hospitals 12:68-74, 1938
16. Singer 17; Choulant L: History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustra-
tion. Translated by M Frank. New York, Hafner Publishing Co, Inc,
1962 (facsimile reprint of 1852 edition); O'Malley CD: Andreas Ves-
alius of Brussels, 1514-1564. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1964;
Wolf-Heidegger, Cetto 9
17. Wolfe-Heidegger, Cetto9 p 36
18. Wolf-Heidegger, Cetto 9 pp 36-38
19. Ullman WH: Obduziert wurde Ignatius von Loyola. Med Welt 35:
1758-1763, 1963
20. Chavarrla AP, Shipley PG: The Siamese twins of Espafiola. Ann Med
Hist 6:297-302, 1924
21. Gordon BL: Medicine among the ancient Hebrews. Ann Med Hist
(Series 3) 4:219-325, 1942
22. Rosner F: Studies in Torah Judaism, Modern Medicine and Jewish Law.
New York, Department of Special Publications of Yeshiva University,
1972, p 136
23. Kottler A: The Jewish attitude on autopsy. NY State J Med 57:1649-
1650, 1957
24. Pag6s A: Petite histoire de l'autopsie anatomo-pathologique. Monspel-
iensis Hippocrates 3(10): 16-24, 1960
25. O'Malley 16 pp 304-305
26. Pare A: Oeuvres completes, Vol 2. Edited by JS Malgaigne, Paris, Bail-
liere, 1840, p 755 (translation by the authors)
27. Jarcho S: Problems of the autopsy in 1670. Bull NY Acad Med 47:792-
796, 1971
28. Castiglioni A: A History of Medicine, Second edition. Translated and
edited by EB Krumbhaar. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1947, p 567
29. Benevieni A: De abditis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis.
Translated by D Singer, with a biographical appreciation by ER Long.
Springfield, Ill, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 1954
30. Benevieni 29 p 87
31. Bonetus T: Sepulchretum sive anatomia practica ex cadaveribus morbo
denatis, editio altera quam novis commentariis . . . fecit Johannes Jacobus
Mangetus, Vols 1-3. Leiden, Cramer and Perachon, 1700
32. Bonetus 31 Vol 2, p 365
33. Boerhaave H: Atrocis, nec descripti prius, morbi historia, Hermann
Boerhaave opera omnia medica. Venice, L. Basilius, 1751, pp 387-404
(This has been translated in: Derbes VJ, Mitchell RE: Hermann Boer-
Vol. 73, No. 2 HISTORY OF THE AUTOPSY 543
November 1973

haave's atrocis nec descripti prius, morbi historia. Bull Med *Lib Assoc
43:217-240, 1955)
34. Boerhaave H: Atrocis, rarissimique morbi historia altera.36 pp 406-414
(This has been translated in: Smith MW: Description of another dread-
ful and unusual disease drawn up by Hermann Boerhaave. J Hist Med
23:331-348, 1968)
35. Morgagni JB: The Seats and Causes of Diseases, Investigated by Anat-
omy, Vols 1-3. Translated by B Alexander. London, Millar et al, 1769
36. Morgagni 35 Vol 1, pp 832-835
37. Morgagni 35 Vol 3, p 563
38. Bichat X: Anatomie g6nerale, appliquee a' la physiologie at a la medi-
cine, Vols 1-4. Paris, Brosson, Gabon & Co, 1801
39. Bichat X: Discours preliminaire, Vol 1, Trait6 d'anatomie descriptive.
Paris, Gabon & Brosson, 1801-1803, p xxx (The passage is also discussed
in: Long ER: A History of Pathology, New York, Dover publications, Inc.
1965, pp 79-80)
40. The best single discussion of this facet of medical history is provided by:
Ackerknecht EH: Medicine at the Paris Hospital 1794-1848. Baltimore,
The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967
41. Prost PA: Medecine eclairee par l'observation et l'ouverture des corps,
Vols 1-2. Paris, Demonville, 1804
42. Prost 41 Vol 1, pp vii-viii
43. Prost 41 Vol 1, p viii
44. Rather LU: Rudolph Virchow's views on pathology, pathological anat-
omy, and cellular pathology. Arch Pathol 82:197-204, 1966
45. Virchow R: Post-mortem Examination with Especial Reference to Med-
ico-legal Practice. Translated from the Second German edition by TP
Smith. Philadelphia, Presley Blakiston, 1880
46. Virchow 45 p 9
47. Virchow 45 p 12
48. Vircho 45 p 31
49. Delafield F: A Handbook of Postmortem Examination and of Morbid
Anatomy. New York, William Wood and Co, 1872
50. Ludwig J: Current Methods of Autopsy Practice. Philadelphia, W. B.
Saunders, CO, 1972
51. Flexner A: Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Re-
port to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bul-
letin 4, 1910. New York, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching, Reproduced in 1960
52. Starr I: Potential values of the autopsy today (editorial). JAMA 160:
1144-1145, 1956
53. Correspondence. JAMA 161:175-177, 749-751, 1956; Cannon PR: Clin-
ical lessons learned in the morgue (editorial). JAMA 161:730-732, 1956;
Angrist AA: Effective use of autopsy in medical education. JAMA 161:
303-309, 156
54. McManus JFA: Correspondence. JAMA 161:749-750, 1956
55. Angrist 53 p 305
56. Enterline HT: Correspondence. JAMA 161:749, 1956
544 KING AND MEEHAN American Journal
of Pathology

57. The broad range of interest is apparent from the following references, which
make no pretence to completeness. Symposia: Symposium on the au-
topsy. JAMA 193:805-814, 1965; Medical progress and the postmortem.
Bull NY Acad Med 44:792-861, 1968; Autopsy and the law. Bull NY
Acad Med 47:736-796, 1971; Editorials: Of autopsies. JAMA 191:
1078-1079, 1965; What about the autopsy? JAMA 193:828-829, 1965;
The autopsy: do we still need it? Chest 57:113-114, 1970; Decline of the
autopsy. Br Med J 2:181-182, 1971; Correspondence. N Engl J Med
282:99-100, 320, 633, 1107, 1970; N Engl J Med 284:557, 1971; Lancet
1:152-152, 263-264, 744-745, 1972; JAMA 222:1556-1557, 1972; JAMA
223:1157-1158, 1973; JAMA 224:1295-1296, 1973
58. Hazard JB: The autopsy. JAMA 193:805-806, 1965
59. Gall EA: The necropsy as a tool in medical progress. Bull NY Acad
Med 44:808-829, 1968
60. Bauer FW, Robbins SL: An autopsy study of cancer patients. I. The
accuracy of clinical diagnoses (1955-1965) Boston City Hospital. JAMA
221:1471-1474, 1972
61. Robertson WB: Correspondence. Lancet 1:152-153, 1972
62. King LS: Of autopsies (editorial). JAMA 191:1078-1079, 1965