ABSTRACT
Disease may be observed at the macroscopic level in the living patient, for example during clinical examination, surgery, endoscopy or through imaging modalities. The museum specimen has long been used to test the student or postgraduate trainee in specialties such as surgery, radiology, oncology and radiotherapy, as well as pathology. A skill that is of great value to the medical practitioner is the ability to observe, to see what is before one’s eyes. This is much harder than it sounds, since even if people are willing to place some effort into looking, perception is often distorted by preconception. Autopsies were performed for centuries without shedding much light on disease mechanisms until the second half of the nineteenth century and the advent of microscopy. In the case of solid organs such as the liver, kidney, thyroid gland or spleen, it is useful to classify disease appearances as: focal (solitary), multifocal or diffuse.
