A STUDY OF MISTAKEN DIAGNOSES

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Abstract
The subject of this paper was suggested by my experiences in a weekly conference with senior medical students at the Harvard Medical School. At this conference the organs obtained from all the autopsies performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital during the week preceding are brought before the class. Before the demonstration of each set of organs I discuss with the students a typewritten summary of the clinical findings in the corresponding patient, including the history, the physical examinations, the reports on blood, urine, stomach contents and feces, thex-ray plates and all other data on which diagnosis was based during life. I never let anyone inform me beforehand of the autopsy findings. After we have committed ourselves definitely regarding the pathologic changes which we expect to find the hospital pathologist, Dr. Oscar Richardson, reads the autopsy protocol and demonstrates the organs. In this exercise I have been forced once

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