One of the earliest atlases of pathological histology. Lebert’s work played an important role in introducing the cellular idea of pathology, laying the groundwork for Virchow’s theories.

Lebert studied cancer cells under high magnification to discover the specific elements distinguishing them from normal cells. He classified tumors as either homeomorphous (composed of elements analogous to those of the normal organism) or heteromorphous (composed of elements having no analogy in the body). Lebert’s treatise “described the characteristics of malignant cells, their variation of sizes, and noted the commonly increased size of the nucleus compared to the cytoplasm (later known as the ‘karyoplasmic ratio’). This is the first description of altered karyoplasmic ratios in cancer cells. Alteration of karyoplasmic ratios is a morphometric criterion still used today in diagnostics” (De las Heras and Schirmer, “The nuclear envelope and cancer: A diagnostic perspective and historical overview,” Cancer Biology and the Nuclear Envelope [2014], p. 8, pp. 5-26). “Lebert characterized the cancer cell itself as follows: ‘The pattern of the cancerous cell is that of a small regular sphere with an elliptical nucleus, placed eccentrically, occupying almost half or even more of the inside and enclosing one or several big nucleoli’” (Wolff, Cancerous Disease [1907] 109). Assuming that only tumors containing this type of cell could be considered cancers, Lebert excluded several types of tumors that had previously been classed as cancerous, calling these tumors “pseudocancer” and “cancroid.”

First systematic account of brain abscess.

Lebert set out to cover both general and special pathology. The superb hand-colored folio-sized copperplate engravings of macro- and micropathology in this work are among the finest ever published.