The operating surgeon should study pathology. The rapid strides of surgery in the last few decades are to be attributed largely to refinements of technic and diagnosis, the elimination of infection and improvements in the mechanical aids to operating. A certain degree of familiarity with the gross appearances of pathologic conditions, as well as a better understanding of regional anatomy, are no doubt gradually acquired in the operating room; a deftness, sometimes mistaken for skill, and the possesion of an analytical mind that enables more exact diagnoses to be made are also desirable—attributes that, however, are not always met in the same individual. But these qualifications, valuable though they are, should not be striven for to the exclusion of a knowledge of pathologic anatomy, and this to be useful can only be obtained by painstaking study and labor.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that, generally speaking, the local surgeons of