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Edinburgh and London, 1960, 8°, VIII, 631, (1) pp., 388 Abbildungen, orig. Leinenband; ExBibExpl. Dr Agnes R Macgregor, former reader in the pathology of the diseases of infancy and childhood in the University of Edinburgh and consultant pathologist to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, and the Southeast Scotland Regional Hospital Board, died on 20 January aged 88. Agnes Rose Macgregor's first experience of pathology in a children's hospital came in 1918 when, having completed the pathology course and her third undergraduate year at Edinburgh University, she was asked by Professor J Lorrain Smith to undertake postmortem examinations and the reporting of biopsies and bacteriological specimens for a few months at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, the pathologist being then on war service. This she did, on a part-time basis, for six months. The hospital had only a rudimentary pathology service, but the work gave her an insight into some aspects of what is now known as paediatric pathology. Graduating MB, ChB in 1920, in 1922 Agnes joined the staff of the university pathology department under Professor Lorrain Smith and then returned to the children's hospital with a regular appointment as part-time pathologist and bacteriologist. She remained a paediatric pathologist until her retirement in 1960. In the 1930s Dr Macgregor was appointed part-time pathologist to the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh, but she received little help from her colleagues, partly because no one knew much about perinatal pathology and partly because of scepticism about its usefulness. Her MD thesis was part of a long struggle to change this. She had been particularly impressed with the significance of infection in perinatal mortality in the preantibiotic era and in 1938 published an important paper on pneumonia in the newborn, which did much to convince the sceptics. This work was carried out in association with the late Dr W A Alexander, past president of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. Although perinatal mortality was her overriding interest, she worked in close association with the late Sir Robert Philip and afterwards with Sir John Crofton, pioneers in the fight against tuberculosis. As an internationally recognised expert in her subject she established in Edinburgh a school of paediatric pathology with a worldwide reputation. Dr Macgregor was the first lady elder of the Church of Scotland, and she appreciated the honour of presenting the chalice to the Queen at the communion in St Giles in 1968. She maintained an active interest in her subject until the last few weeks of her life, and in 1981 was present at both the 300th anniversary celebrations of the foundation of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, at which she renewed her acquaintance with the Queen, and also at the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the chair of pathology in the University of Edinburgh. In a letter received from her a few weeks before her death she wrote, "The rapid development of biochemistry, cytogenetics, and genetics has shifted interest from pure morbid anatomy. This has led to many advances in knowledge and treatment, but there are some who fear that the shift is going too far and are having difficulty in finding young pathologists who will interest themselves in the older disciplines"." BMJ, 284 (1982), p.589.
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