ABSTRACT
Human dissection undertaken to explain the cause of a natural death as opposed to a death caused by inflicted injury has a history of nearly four centuries, spanning the ages of enlightenment, reason and the romantic and modern eras. In the nineteenth century, the centrepiece of pathological anatomy was the autopsy. The singular importance of the autopsy also obscured and impeded the development of more relevant activities, such as the diagnosis of disease before death. The mechanisms underlying disease and death are not necessarily explained exclusively on the basis of abnormal structure, even when anatomical investigation is supported by the most sophisticated microscopic techniques. Radiology has contributed an alternative, non-invasive approach to diagnosis that has been strengthened in recent years by the introduction of ultrasound imaging, computerised axial tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, all of which continue to be developed and refined.
