of the spinal cord. Other publications of the Registry include syllabuses on various disease conditions, issued in connection with courses of instruction.
Most of the publications have gone through more than one edition, with revisions and reprinting. "Our original atlases were rather primitive," said Colonel Ash in the course of reminiscent remarks at the 1952 session of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. The pages of the first editions were mimeographed and had as illustrations actual photographs instead of printed reproductions. This limited the editions to about 100 copies of each. "I remember so well the job it was to collate the pages," said Colonel Ash. "We had the pages in a series of pigeonholes on the balcony of the old Museum and it was the habit of the few of us who were then at the Museum to stop and collate a book or two on our way back from the rest rooms on the first floor."
Continuing, Colonel Ash said that "after this initial effort of using photographs, we did manage to acquire a little offset reproducing machine with which the second edition was run off * * *. All the time, however, we had in mind atlases that were more comprehensive professionally and technically less amateurish."
Advantages of the Registry System
Speaking from his long experience with the Registry system, Colonel Ash expressed the conviction that "registries, properly sponsored and properly administered, can be very potent factors in education, in research, and in the advancement of the various clinical specialties."
Speaking as a general pathologist, the colonel declared that "much of the pathology of several of the specialties has been developed by clinical specialists frequently not too well grounded in general pathology. On the other hand, general pathologists have very little notion of the eye pathology and not too much of skin, bone, teeth, and so on. Well, it is our idea that with these very specialized activities at the Institute we have helped the specialist in the pathology of his field, but at the same time have importantly stimulated the general pathologist to an interest in these special fields."
Colonel Ash was speaking 30 years after the organization, by General Callender, of the first of the Museum's registries. In those years, 22 registries had been formed. Others were to be added in the decade which followed, bringing the total to 27 at the close of the first century of the life of the Museum and its successor, the Institute. The value of the Registry as an essential part of the activities of the Institute has been abundantly proved by the better
