From the preface: "Pathologists are responsible for the interpretation of tissue samples removed for the purpose of establishing a diagnosis. This textbook has been conceived and arranged in a manner that facilitates the task of arriving at a diagnosis through the evaluation of tissues removed from patients afflicted with neurological complaints. The portion of the diagnostic work-up that is purely "clinical", such as the history of the disease and the results of the physical examination are entirely beyond the scope of this textbook...Extensive descriptions of disease processes, which are available in most of the references cited, have been omitted in favor of relatively detailed descriptions and abundant illustrations of the histologic abnormalities that, as a group, constitute a diagnostic entity."