The Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine's Nonagintennial.

This year’s celebration of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine’s 90th anniversary provides a superb opportunity to reflect upon its amazing history and to consider how far medicine has come in such a brief period of human history. The year 1926 was a culturally robust year, distinguished by the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, the first screening of The Phantom of the Opera, the opening of the Grand Ole Opry, and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters. Modern medicine, however, was in its infancy. Johannes Fibiger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1926 ‘‘for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma.’’ Ephedrine was identified as useful for ‘‘the treatment of asthma, local nasal conditions, hay fever and possibly low blood pressure in shock, but it [was] very expensive.’’ Pasteurization, which became widespread only a decade earlier, ‘‘. . .eliminated waste and milk-born epidemics. . .[so that drinking milk was no longer]. . . like a lottery from which one drew an attack of typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, or tuberculosis.’’ In 1926, the first pertussis vaccine was developed. Moreover, diseases today rarely considered—rickets and beriberi—were linked to vitamin D and vitamin B1 deficiency, respectively. Today, infectious epidemics and widespread vitamin deficiencies remain a part of our global heath challenge. In the United States, although some of these conditions are, for the most part, a thing of the past, new, exotic, unheard of, but just-as-deadly infections have come to our attention as they threaten to explode worldwide. Since 1926, cancer has been histologically classified with increased precision, and today pathology is progressing beyond histologic classification toward classification of neoplasms increasingly informed by their molecular characteristics—providing both challenges and immense opportunities for pathologists. Pathology’s standard of care today requires additional information provided at the molecular level for many diagnoses. Cancer patients are even benefitting from previously unimagined immunotherapeutic possibilities. The clinical laboratory is also continuing to mature, using new ideas and new technologies to provide more-accurate, more-applicable, and more-valuable laboratory tests faster. Because pathology is ubiquitous in, indeed almost synonymous with, medicine, no specific event or time unambiguously heralds its beginning. Perhaps pathology’s modern construct originated with the recording of autopsies in Antonio Benivieni’s ‘‘De Abditis Nonnullis ac Mirandis Morborum et Sanationum Causis’’ [About the Hidden Causes of Disease] in the late 15th century—a tome that helped set the stage for the advances of the 16th century anatomists. Arguably, however, the best individual year proclaiming pathology’s establishment is 1926, when the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine was first published, as well as the beginning of 1-year apprenticeship in pathology. These 2 signal events preceded the formation of the American Board of Pathology a decade later. The pathologist’s exquisite passion for detail in medical diagnosis and the quality of patient care, hallmarks of pathology, are evident from the ARCHIVES’ very first edition; in fact, a separate section of the first edition was titled ‘‘Laboratory and Technical Notes’’ and included an article discussing a control method for staining smears for tubercle bacilli. Today’s ARCHIVES carries on the documentation of the pathologist’s dedication to accuracy and excellence with more-sophisticated techniques, such as the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes studies. During these past 90 years, the ARCHIVES has continuously chronicled great medical advances, sharing the amazing discoveries that pathologists have encountered, and providing a forum for educational and policy challenges in pathology—challenges that have recently become seemingly ever-present and frustratingly ever-changing. From its inaugural editorial board of 6 pathologists, to today’s robust editorial board under the direction of Editor-in-Chief Philip T. Cagle, MD, the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine continues to serve pathologists and other physicians internationally and is undoubtedly destined to continue to lead the way in chronicling medical advances, sharing research discoveries, and providing an invaluable education and policy forum. . .through the ARCHIVES’ dodransbicentennial and beyond.