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Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 1011

Ewa Pietka
Pawel Badura
Jacek Kawa
Wojciech Wieclawek Editors

Information
Technology in
Biomedicine
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Volume 1011

Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland

Advisory Editors
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
Rafael Bello Perez, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computing,
Universidad Central de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
Emilio S. Corchado, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Hani Hagras, School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering,
University of Essex, Colchester, UK
László T. Kóczy, Department of Automation, Széchenyi István University,
Gyor, Hungary
Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas
at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
Chin-Teng Lin, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chiao
Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Jie Lu, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,
University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Patricia Melin, Graduate Program of Computer Science, Tijuana Institute
of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico
Nadia Nedjah, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rio de
Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, Faculty of Computer Science and Management,
Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland
Jun Wang, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications
on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent
Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer
and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment,
healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern
intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft comput-
ing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion
of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuro-
science, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems,
Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and
adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric
computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics
including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning para-
digms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent
agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust
management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.
The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are
primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They
cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and
applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short
publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad
dissemination of research results.
** Indexing: The books of this series are submitted to ISI Proceedings,
EI-Compendex, DBLP, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink **

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11156


Ewa Pietka Pawel Badura
• •

Jacek Kawa Wojciech Wieclawek


Editors

Information Technology
in Biomedicine

123
Editors
Ewa Pietka Pawel Badura
Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Biomedical Engineering
Silesian University of Technology Silesian University of Technology
Zabrze, Poland Zabrze, Poland

Jacek Kawa Wojciech Wieclawek


Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Biomedical Engineering
Silesian University of Technology Silesian University of Technology
Zabrze, Poland Zabrze, Poland

ISSN 2194-5357 ISSN 2194-5365 (electronic)


Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
ISBN 978-3-030-23761-5 ISBN 978-3-030-23762-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23762-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

Information technology is a rapidly evolving discipline in medical data science,


presenting one of the most significant potential for the future of health care.
Multimodal acquisition systems, mobile devices, sensors, and AI-powered appli-
cations give a new meaning to the optimization of clinical processes. Traditional
signal and image data is completed by patient-related and case-related data which is
able to reflect the patient condition and support the diagnosis, treatment, and
physiotherapy procedures. The book includes nine parts that discuss various
problems related to problem-dependant issues as well as general approaches to data
acquisition, analysis, classification, and visualization. A special attention is paid to
Active and Assisted Living in aging society. More specifically, the thematic scope
of particular parts includes the aspects listed below.
Quantitative Data Analysis in Medical Diagnosis part addresses methods for
processing of big quantitative medical data. Particular chapters discuss the
biomedical image registration, visualization and modeling, data analysis, recogni-
tion, and retrieval employed in detection and diagnosis support systems.
Medical Data Science part presents original studies reporting on scientific
approaches, especially pattern-recognition and machine-learning-based algorithms
for interpretation of health-related, sensory data and ICT solutions toward pro-
moting active and healthy lifestyle connected with demographic changes leading to
society aging.
Data Mining Tools and Methods in Medical Applications part covers a broad
range of medical data mining approaches in diagnostic applications and decision
support systems including classical and convolutional neural networks and other
artificial intelligence tools at the stage of feature selection and transformation,
outlier detection, pattern recognition, and classification.
Image Analysis part introduces multimodal data acquisition as well as 3D and
4D medical image analysis.
Analytics in Action on SAS Platform part presents techniques including
cognitive computing, deep learning, natural language processing, and machine
learning combined with scalable, high-performance SAS platform in healthcare
applications that may improve patient care.

v
vi Preface

Biocybernetics in Physiotherapy part introduces biocybernetic support in


innovative physiotherapy procedures by incorporating anthropometrics, data
acquisition, and processing systems.
Signal Processing and Analysis part indicates various approaches to the ECG
signal analysis, noise estimation, and heart rate variability analysis.
Biomechanics and Biomaterials part presents the evaluation of gait strategy on
a treadmill based on frequency analysis, an assessment of the virtual reality
influence on gait parameters, evaluation of muscle activities, and a study on
biodegradable polymers technology.
Medical Tools and Interfaces part presents studies on workstation interface
design and medical informatics tools employed in diagnosis, treatment, and
visualization.
The editors would like to express their gratitude to all authors who contributed
their original research reports as well as to all reviewers for their valuable com-
ments. Your effort has contributed to the high quality of the book that we pass on to
the readers.

Zabrze, Poland Ewa Pietka


June 2019
Contents

Quantitative Data Analysis in Medical Diagnosis


Functional Thermal Imaging of Skin Tissue Using the Discrete
Thermal Time Constants Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Maria Strąkowska, Robert Strąkowski, and Michał Strzelecki
Contextual Classification of Tumor Growth Patterns in Digital
Histology Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Zaneta Swiderska-Chadaj, Zhaoxuan Ma, Nathan Ing,
Tomasz Markiewicz, Malgorzata Lorent, Szczepan Cierniak,
Ann E. Walts, Beatrice S. Knudsen, and Arkadiusz Gertych
Cervical Histopathology Image Classification Using Ensembled
Transfer Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chen Li, Dan Xue, Fanjie Kong, Zhijie Hu, Hao Chen, Yudong Yao,
Hongzan Sun, Le Zhang, Jinpeng Zhang, Tao Jiang, Jianying Yuan,
and Ning Xu
Functional Kidney Analysis Based on Textured DCE-MRI Images . . . . 38
Marcin Kociołek, Michał Strzelecki, and Artur Klepaczko
Incorporating Patient Photographs in the Radiology Image
Acquisition and Interpretation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Elizabeth A. Krupinski
Iterative Statistical Reconstruction Algorithm Based on C-C Data
Model with the Direct Use of Projections Performed in Spiral
Cone-Beam CT Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Robert Cierniak and Piotr Pluta
Deformable Mesh for Regularization of Three-Dimensional Image
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Piotr M. Szczypiński and Artur Klepaczko

vii
viii Contents

Simulator for Modelling Confocal Microscope Distortions . . . . . . . . . . . 79


Katarzyna Sprawka and Piotr M. Szczypiński

Medical Data Science


Electromyography Based Translator of the Polish Sign Language . . . . . 93
Noemi Kowalewska, Przemysław Łagodziński, and Marcin Grzegorzek
Electrooculography Application in Vision Therapy Using Smart
Glasses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Maja Trzepacz, Przemysław Łagodziński, and Marcin Grzegorzek
Assessment of Muscle Fatigue, Strength and Muscle Activation
During Exercises with the Usage of Robot Luna EMG, Among
Patients with Multiple Sclerosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Krystyna Stańczyk, Anna Poświata, Anna Roksela, and Michał Mikulski
Information Models of Dynamics in Healthcare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Václav Řepa
Effects of External Conditions to Chaotic Properties of Human
Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Radek Halfar, Martina Litschmannová, and Martin Černý
A Preliminary Evaluation of Transferring the Approach Avoidance
Task into Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Tanja Joan Eiler, Armin Grünewald, Alla Machulska, Tim Klucken,
Katharina Jahn, Björn Niehaves, Carl Friedrich Gethmann,
and Rainer Brück

Data Mining Tools and Methods in Medical Applications


Convolutional Neural Networks in Speech Emotion
Recognition – Time-Domain and Spectrogram-Based Approach . . . . . . 167
Bartłomiej Stasiak, Sławomir Opałka, Dominik Szajerman,
and Adam Wojciechowski
Convolutional Neural Networks for Computer Aided Diagnosis
of Interdental and Rustling Sigmatism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Andre Woloshuk, Michal Krecichwost, Zuzanna Miodonska,
Dominika Korona, and Pawel Badura
Barley Defects Identification by Convolutional Neural Networks . . . . . . 187
Michał Kozłowski and Piotr M. Szczypiński
Wavelet Convolution Neural Network for Classification of Spiculated
Findings in Mammograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Magdalena Jasionowska and Aleksandra Gacek
Contents ix

Weakly Supervised Cervical Histopathological Image Classification


Using Multilayer Hidden Conditional Random Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chen Li, Hao Chen, Dan Xue, Zhijie Hu, Le Zhang, Liangzi He, Ning Xu,
Shouliang Qi, He Ma, and Hongzan Sun
A Survey for Breast Histopathology Image Analysis Using Classical
and Deep Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Chen Li, Dan Xue, Zhijie Hu, Hao Chen, Yudong Yao, Yong Zhang,
Mo Li, Qian Wang, and Ning Xu

Image Analysis
Descriptive Seons: Measure of Brain Tissue Impairment . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Artur Przelaskowski, Ewa Sobieszczuk, and Izabela Domitrz
An Automatic Method of Chronic Wounds Segmentation
in Multimodal Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Joanna Czajkowska, Marta Biesok, Jan Juszczyk, Agata Wijata,
Bartłomiej Pyciński, Michal Krecichwost, and Ewa Pietka
Evaluation of Methods for Volume Estimation of Chronic Wounds . . . . 258
Jan Juszczyk, Agata Wijata, Joanna Czajkowska, Marta Biesok,
Bartłomiej Pyciński, and Ewa Pietka
Infrared and Visible Image Fusion Objective Evaluation Method . . . . . 268
Daniel Ledwoń, Jan Juszczyk, and Ewa Pietka
Wavelet Imaging Features for Classification of First-Episode
Schizophrenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Kateřina Maršálová and Daniel Schwarz
Dynamic Occlusion Surface Estimation from 4D Multimodal
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Agnieszka A. Tomaka, Leszek Luchowski, Dariusz Pojda,
and Michał Tarnawski
Evaluation of Dental Implant Stability Using Radiovisiographic
Characterization and Texture Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Marta Borowska and Janusz Szarmach
Patella – Atlas Based Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Piotr Zarychta

Analytics in Action on SAS Platform


De-Identification of Electronic Health Records Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Piotr Borowik, Piotr Brylicki, Mariusz Dzieciątko, Waldemar Jęda,
Łukasz Leszewski, and Piotr Zając
x Contents

Correcting Polish Bigrams and Diacritical Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338


Mariusz Dzieciątko, Dominik Spinczyk, and Piotr Borowik
Initial Motivation as a Factor Predicting the Progress of Learning
Mathematics for the Blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Michał Maćkowski, Katarzyna Rojewska, Mariusz Dzieciątko,
and Dominik Spinczyk

Biocybernetics in Physiotherapy
Relationship Between Body Sway and Body Building in Girls
and Boys in Developmental Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Anna Lipowicz, Tomasz Szurmik, Monika N. Bugdol, Katarzyna Graja,
Piotr Kurzeja, and Andrzej W. Mitas
Classification of Girls’ Sexual Maturity Using Factor Analysis
and Analysis of Moderated Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Monika N. Bugdol, Marta Marszałek, and Marcin D. Bugdol
Subjective and Objective Assessment of Developmental Dysfunction
in Children Aged 0–3 Years – Comparative Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Mariola Ciuraj, Katarzyna Kieszczyńska, Iwona Doroniewicz,
and Anna Lipowicz
Intra- and Intergroup Measurement Errors in Anthropometric
Studies Carried Out on Face Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Katarzyna Graja, Anna Lipowicz, Monika N. Bugdol,
and Andrzej W. Mitas
Comparative Analysis of Selected Stabilographic Parameters Among
Polish and Slovak Children in Aspect of Factors Indirectly Affecting
the Body Posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Tomasz Szurmik, Piotr Kurzeja, Jarosław Prusak, Zuzanna Hudakova,
Bartłomiej Gąsienica-Walczak, Karol Bibrowicz, and Andrzej W. Mitas
The Impact of Physical Activity on the Change of Pulse Wave
Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Anna Mańka, Robert Michnik, and Andrzej W. Mitas
Evaluation of Selected Parameters Related to Maintaining the Body
Balance in the Aspect of Physical Activity in Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . 425
Piotr Kurzeja, Jarosław Prusak, Tomasz Szurmik, Jan Potoniec,
Zuzanna Hudakova, Bartłomiej Gąsienica-Walczak, Karol Bibrowicz,
and Andrzej W. Mitas
RAS in the Aspect of Symmetrization of Lower Limb Loads . . . . . . . . . 436
Patrycja Romaniszyn, Damian Kania, Katarzyna Nowakowska,
Marta Sobkowiak, Bruce Turner, Andrzej Myśliwiec, Robert Michnik,
and Andrzej W. Mitas
Contents xi

Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation. Biocybernetics Dimension


of Music Entrainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Bruce Turner and Andrzej W. Mitas

Signal Processing and Analysis


Pointwise Estimation of Noise in a Multilead ECG Record . . . . . . . . . . 463
Piotr Augustyniak
Heart Rate Variability Analysis on Reference Heart Beats
and Detected Heart Beats of Smartphone Seismocardiograms . . . . . . . . 473
Szymon Sieciński, Paweł S. Kostka, Ewaryst J. Tkacz, Natalia Piaseczna,
and Marta Wadas
The New Approach for ECG Signal Quality Index Estimation
on the Base of Robust Statistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Tomasz Pander and Tomasz Przybyła
8-Lead Bioelectrical Signals Data Acquisition Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Tadeáš Bednár, Branko Babušiak, and Milan Smetana
Smart Sheet Design for Electrocardiogram Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Branko Babusiak, Stefan Borik, Maros Smondrk, and Ladislav Janousek
Evaluation of Specific Absorption Rate in SAM Head Phantom
with Cochlear Implant with and Without Hand Model Near
PIFA Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Jana Mydlova, Mariana Benova, Zuzana Psenakova, and Maros Smondrk

Biomechanics and Biomaterials


The Evaluation of Gait Strategy on a Treadmill Using a New IGS
Index Based on Frequency Analysis of COP Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Piotr Wodarski, Jacek Jurkojć, Andrzej Bieniek, Miłosz Chrzan,
Robert Michnik, Zygmunt Łukaszczyk, and Marek Gzik
The Analysis of the Influence of Virtual Reality on Parameters of Gait
on a Treadmill According to Adjusted and Non-adjusted Pace
of the Visual Scenery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Piotr Wodarski, Jacek Jurkojć, Andrzej Bieniek, Miłosz Chrzan,
Robert Michnik, Jacek Polechoński, and Marek Gzik
Assessment of Loads Exerted on the Lumbar Segment of the Vertebral
Column in Everyday-Life Activities – Application of Methods
of Mathematical Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Hanna Zadoń, Robert Michnik, Katarzyna Nowakowska,
and Andrzej Myśliwiec
xii Contents

Evaluation of Muscle Activity of the Lower Limb During Isometric


Rotation Based on Measurements Using a Dynamometric
and Dynamographic Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Miłosz Chrzan, Robert Michnik, Andrzej Bieniek, Piotr Wodarski,
and Andrzej Myśliwiec
Adhesion of Poly(lactide-glycolide) Coating (PLGA)
on the Ti6Al7Nb Alloy Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Janusz Szewczenko, Wojciech Kajzer, Anita Kajzer, Marcin Basiaga,
Marcin Kaczmarek, Roman Major, Wojciech Simka, Joanna Jaworska,
Katarzyna Jelonek, Paulina Karpeta-Jarząbek, and Janusz Kasperczyk

Medical Tools and Interfaces


Classification System for Multi-class Biomedical Data that Allows
Different Data Fusion Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Sebastian Student, Krzysztof Łakomiec, Alicja Płuciennik,
Wojciech Bensz, and Krzysztof Fujarewicz
Preliminary Study of Computer Aided Diagnosis Methodology
for Modeling and Visualization the Respiratory Deformations
of the Breast Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
Aleksandra Juraszczyk, Mateusz Bas, and Dominik Spinczyk
Software Tool for Tracking of Voxel Phantom’s
Anatomical Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Maros Smondrk, Branko Babusiak, and Mariana Benova
Evaluation of the Usefulness of Images Transmitted by the Internet
Communicator for the Diagnosis of Surgical Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Dariusz Dzielicki, Paweł Mikos, Krzysztof Dzielicki, Witold Lukas,
and Józef Dzielicki
Digitized Records with Automatic Evaluation for Natural Family
Planning and Hormonal Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
Zuzana Judáková, Ivana Gálová, Michal Gála, and Ladislav Janoušek
Design and Testing of Radiofrequency Instrument RONLINE . . . . . . . . 638
Alice Krestanova, Jan Kracmar, Milada Hlavackova, Jan Kubicek,
Petr Vavra, Marek Penhaker, and Petr Ihnat
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Quantitative Data Analysis in Medical
Diagnosis
Functional Thermal Imaging of Skin
Tissue Using the Discrete Thermal Time
Constants Spectrum

(B)
Maria Strakowska
 , Robert Strakowski,
 and Michal Strzelecki

Lodz University of Technology, Institute of Electronics, 211/215 Wólczańska Str.,


90-924 Lódź, Poland
{maria.strakowska,robert.strakowski,michal.strzelecki}@p.lodz.pl

Abstract. In this paper we present functional thermal imaging using


InfraRed (IR) thermography to measure temperature rise in a skin tissue
in transient state after weak cooling. Skin tissue is the multilayer complex
biological structure. It can be modelled using thermal-electrical analogy
by Foster and/or Cauer networks consisting of thermal resistances and
capacitances Rth − Cth . The proposed methodology allows identifying
thermal time constants of a multilayer biomedical structure. The distri-
butions of parameters used for approximation temperature evolution at
the upper surface of the skin tissue with psoriasis are presented. They
correlate with the inflammation areas of the skin.

Keywords: IR active thermography · cold provocation · screening ·


medical imaging

1 Introduction
Spectrum of time constants is frequently used for modelling of electrical and
electronic dynamic systems described by their transfer functions in many prac-
tical applications [2–4,34–36]. This technique has already been applied for ther-
mal biomedical structures [31,33], including the skin which also represents
complex biological structure [12,16,17,25,32]. In this case, the thermal model
takes a form of a low pass filter with a few single-order poles [2,4]. There
are different methods implemented for identification the parameters of transfer
functions. The most known and used are: Network Identification by Deconvo-
lution (NID), Continuous-time System Identification (CONTSID), Vector Fit-
ting (VF ), Computer-Aided Program for Time-series Analysis and Identification
of Noisy Systems (CAPTAIN ) and Transfer Function Estimation (TFEST )
implemented in Matlab [1–4,6–11,13,15,18,20–23,26–31,34–37]. In this paper
we present the methodology for thermal modelling of a tissue using numer-
ical gradientless optimisation. Chosen optimisation methods are implemented
in Matlab. After a few trails, fminsearch method was selected in this research
[19,24].
c Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
E. Pietka et al. (Eds.): ITIB 2019, AISC 1011, pp. 3–12, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23762-2_1
4 M. Strakowska
 et al.

One has to underline that the thermal Rth − Cth model of multilayer struc-
tures is a difficult numerical task. It is the thermal inverse problem which is in
the general case very ill-conditioned. This problem becomes even more severe
for biomedical applications, because a tissue is not solid material with constant
thermal parameters. Tissue is a kind of porous material with perfusion and
blood flow, and it reacts on the external stimulus as the close negative feedback
dynamic system with thermoregulation [33].

2 Spectrum of Thermal Time Constants for Multilayer


Structures
The overall method for time constants’ identification and visualisation is pre-
sented in Fig. 1. It starts from temperature measurement using IR thermal cam-
era just after a weak cooling of the upper part of a skin tissue. It is recommended
to use a high-speed thermal camera, which allows capturing images with at least
25 Hz frame rate. The higher the frame rate, the shorter the time constants can be
identified. As the method is tested on patients in a clinic, the first pre-processing
step of the algorithm refers to the movement correction [30]. It is necessary to
perform the movement correction because the measurement lasts several minutes
typically. During that time patients are not able to stand still. Next, the region
of interest (ROI) is determined as the area where the skin was cooled (the differ-
ence between first and last frame of the measure sequence). This automatically

Fig. 1. The block scheme of time constant visualisation for the multilayer skin structure
Functional Thermal Imaging of Skin Tissue 5

selected ROI is divided into rectangular sub-blocks with 3 × 3 pixels each. The
average temperature in time is calculated for each block.
The crucial step of the proposed method is the approximation of tempera-
ture curve in time domain using a given series of exponential and error functions.
Two models of temperature variation in time were proposed. The first one was a
series of 2 or 3 elementary exponential functions – Eq. (1). The second approx-
imation was made using the linear combination of 1 exponential term with the
complementary error function erfc(x) – Eq. (2).
N
  −t

T (t) = Ti 1 − e τi where N = 2 or 3 (1)
i=1
    
−t t t
T (t) = T1 1 − e τ1
+ T2 1 − e erf c
τ2
(2)
τ2
The first approximation corresponds directly to the Foster Rf −th − Cf −th
thermal network [4,30,31]. The Foster network has no physical meaning in con-
trast to the Cauer network. In this research, the visualisation of the parameters
(Ti , τi ) of the approximating functions is presented. Instead of using time con-
stants one proposed to use the reciprocal of time constant - angular frequency
ωi = 1/τi . The mathematical details of each step in the algorithm have already
been presented [31].

3 Software for Functional Imaging of Skin Tissues


The program τ -spectrum for thermal parameters visualisation was written in
the Matlab environment. It implements all steps of the method presented above.
At first, the user has to load the sequence of the images from the thermal camera.
In this research, the CEDIP Titanium IR camera was used. Let us notice that
for the given example of ROI presented in Fig. 2 one needs to calculate time
constants 8820 times. It is a very time-consuming task, and it lasts about 50
min. on Core i7-3820QM CPU. There is one very important subroutine that
takes most of the time for processing. It is the optimisation. The fminsearch
method implemented in Matlab program was used. It uses the Nelder-Mead
downhill simplex algorithm [19,24]. It is a kind of nonlinear searching of the
objective function minimum without calculating derivatives. In consequence, it
has an advantage for fitting the noisy curves, but on the other hand, it is sensitive
to the starting point [19,24].
The rest of the calculations is relatively fast. The main window of the program
τ -spectrum with the first thermal image of sequence is presented in Fig. 2. In
addition, τ -spectrum allows calibration of the camera, detection of cooled area
(ROI that was mentioned earlier), extraction of all curves within detected ROI
and finally visualization of curve parameters distribution on the surface of the
skin.
Approximation of temperature rise after cooling of a tissue with 3-time con-
stants should be better than using 2-time constants, and it is so indeed but
6 M. Strakowska
 et al.

Fig. 2. Main screen of τ -spectrum program

Table 1. Exemplary values of the parameters of approximation functions

2 tau (exp+erfc) 2 tau (exp) 3 tau (exp)


T1 [◦ C] 0.6363 2.5346 1.4812
ω1 [1/s] 0.0814 0.1534 0.3419
T2 [◦ C] 5.3681 2.2840 1.6981
ω2 [1/s] 0.0166 0.0110 0.0471
T3 [◦ C] – – 1.7753
ω3 [1/s] – – 0.0072
Correlation 0.9994 0.9980 0.9994

the correlation coefficients are sometimes very close to each other – Table 1.
Although it is an obvious statement, the significant difference is always at the
beginning of the warming up process. Precise approximation at the beginning of
the thermal recovery is recommended. The shortest time constants describe the
fast reaction of the skin due to the blood flow in the superficial part of the skin.
This important information can be useful for screening or diagnosis in medical
treatment. The accuracy of the presented approximation in the early part of
temperature rise is presented using logarithmic scale as in Fig. 3. Quantitatively
this accuracy is expressed by correlation coefficient as in Table 1.

4 Results

The experiments were performed in the Bieganski State Hospital (Lodz, Poland)
including the patients suffering from psoriasis. Psoriasis in the developed form
Functional Thermal Imaging of Skin Tissue 7

Fig. 3. Approximation of temperature versus time using (a) 2 exponential functions,


(b) single exponential and complementary error functions and (c) 3 exponential func-
tions

easily allows identifying the inflammation areas. In consequence, it is easy to


compare and correlate functional images presenting the parameters’ distribution
with inflammation of the tissue. In Fig. 4, the exemplary visual and thermal
images of the skin tissue at the upper extremity of the patient are shown. The
thermal image does not allow localizing the part of the skin with developed
psoriasis.
In Figs. 5, 6 and 7 the maps of distributions of Ti and ωi parameters are
presented. As one can notice, that most of the functional images presenting
distributions of angular frequencies corresponds to the visual image and inflam-
mation regions. The short and large time constants describe short and long-time
variation of temperature of the skin. In general, the distribution of time constants
will allow segmenting the areas of the skin reacting faster and slower. Detailed
analysis of the parametric images can lead to the conclusion the healthy part of
the skin reacts faster, while the tissue with a disease is more thermally inertial. It
agrees with general medical knowledge. It is an important conclusion, especially
if no inflammation is visible. As all know, it can happen, e.g. when psoriasis
returns after previous resection.
8 M. Strakowska
 et al.

Fig. 4. Photo (a) and a single thermal image (b), selected from the sequence, of the
skin of the patient suffering from psoriasis

Fig. 5. Maps of thermal angular frequencies (reciprocal of time constants) obtained


using exp+erfc approximation presented in Eq. (2) (a) ω1 , (b) ω2 and approximation
using 2 exp - Eq. (1), (c) ω1 , (d) ω2 (where ω1  ω2 )

The parameters Ti (amplitudes of the time constants) are valuable as well.


They show the contribution of an appropriate exponential component in the
series approximating temperature rise (Eqs. 1–2). The high value of this param-
eter means that the appropriate term in the approximation equation has signif-
icant contribution and its influence is more visible on the time curve.
The image presenting the distribution the largest time constant (the lowest
angular frequency) can be eliminated from the analysis as it mainly depends
on environmental conditions, such as convection cooling and evaporation at the
surface of the skin.
The more diagnostic information can be extracted by investigating the rela-
tions between time constants and their amplitudes in the spectrum. This problem
requires a detailed examination in the future. In addition, the presented results
clearly confirm the necessity of approximating the temperature versus time after
Functional Thermal Imaging of Skin Tissue 9

Fig. 6. Distributions of reciprocals of thermal angular frequencies – reciprocal of time


constants (a) ω1 , (b) ω2 , (c) ω3 using series of 3 exponential components for temperature
curve approximation presented in Eq. (1) (where ω1  ω2  ω3 )

Fig. 7. Distributions of (a) T1 , (b) T2 , (c) T3 parameters using series of 3 exponential


components for temperature curve approximation presented in Eq. (1)

Fig. 8. The colormap used to present maps of calculated parameters


10 M. Strakowska
 et al.

cold provocation using the series of at least 3 exponential components, otherwise


it is not possible to estimate the thermal parameters of the skin corresponding
to the perfusion and blood flow.

5 Conclusions
In this paper the novel method of visualisation of the skin multilayer struc-
ture is presented. One proposed the parametric images showing distributions of
angular frequencies, time constants, and their spectral amplitudes to visualise
the inflammation parts of the tissue where the different perfusion and blood
flow occur. The proposed approach is a kind of functional imaging using non-
invasive thermal provocation by weak cooling and temperature measurement in
transient state using high-speed thermal cameras. The practical and important
result of the research is the conclusion, that minimum 3 thermal time constants
approximation is required for quantitative analysis of the skin pathologies. The
presented method of functional images needs inverse thermal problem solution
which is an extremely ill-conditioned numerical procedure. It requires the pre-
caution to choose the appropriate numerical methods and criteria for results’
assessment. The presented method can be used for screening of selected skin
pathologies (such as psoriasis) or/and monitoring of healing, e.g. after skin burn
or medical treatment. Also, it can be used to improve breast cancer detection,
combined together with the approach described in [14].

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Contextual Classification of Tumor
Growth Patterns in Digital Histology
Slides

Zaneta Swiderska-Chadaj1 , Zhaoxuan Ma3,4 , Nathan Ing2,3 ,


Tomasz Markiewicz1,5 , Malgorzata Lorent5 , Szczepan Cierniak5 ,
Ann E. Walts4 , Beatrice S. Knudsen3,4 , and Arkadiusz Gertych3,4(B)
1
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Warsaw Technical University, Warsaw, Poland
2
Department of Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA
3
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
Los Angeles, USA
4
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
arkadiusz.gertych@cshs.org
5
Department of Pathomorphology, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract. Patch-based image classification approaches are frequently


employed in digital pathology applications with the goal to automati-
cally delineate diagnostically important regions in digital slides. However,
patches into which a slide is partitioned are often classified singly and
sequentially without additional context. To address this issue, we tested
a contextual classification of image patches with soft voting applied to
a multi-class classification problem. The context comprised five or nine
overlapping patches. The classification is performed using convolutional
neural networks (CNNs) trained to recognize four histologically distinct
growth patterns of lung adenocarcioma and non-tumor areas. Classifi-
cation with soft voting outperformed sequential classification of patches
yielding higher whole slide classification accuracy. The F1-scores for the
four tumor growth patterns improved by 3% and 4.9% when the context
consisted of five and nine neighboring patches, respectively. We conclude
that the context can improve classification performance of areas sharing
the same histological features. Soft voting is a non-trainable approach
and therefore straightforward to implement. However, it is computation-
ally more expensive than the classical single patch-based approach.

Keywords: Deep learning · Digital pathology · Lung cancer

1 Introduction

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are the central component in the current
generation of machine learning tools designed to build decision-making work-
flows for digital pathology. They have shown applicability in pattern recognition,
c Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
E. Pietka et al. (Eds.): ITIB 2019, AISC 1011, pp. 13–25, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23762-2_2
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and Lady”; the high-born Countess Johanna Henrietta Constantia,
born the same, “my especially gracious Countess”; and my ditto the
high-born Countess Louisa Marianne, born the same,—not to
mention a beautiful Ode, several Prefaces, an Introduction, and the
full text, with translation in German Alexandrines, of the Ars Poetica
itself. If writer and reader do not feel themselves safe under the
convoy of all these charming spells and periapts, it is surely a pity.
It would, however, be most uncritical, and entirely unjust to
Gottsched, to assert or insinuate that his apparatus is mere matter of
Its chief idea. parade. On the contrary, the preface to the second
edition first enumerates as “the greatest
connoisseurs and masters of Poetic,” Aristotle, Horace, Longinus,
Scaliger, Boileau, Bossu, Dacier, Perrault, Bouhours, Fénelon, Saint-
Evremond, Fontenelle, La Motte, Corneille, Racine, Callières,
Furetière, Shaftesbury, Addison, Steele, Castelvetro, Muralt, and
Voltaire. For all of whom, except where (like Béat de Muralt, for
instance) they have been reserved for reasons,[736] reference may be
made to other pages of the present History. It afterwards specially
alleges, as additional authorities, Riccoboni’s history of the Italian
Stage, an anonymous Paragone della Poesia Tragica d' Italia con
quella de Francia which I have not seen, Rapin, Brumoy [spelt
Brumois], Hédelin, Rémond de Saint-Mard, an English anonymus[737]
on The Taste of the Town, Ramsay, Pope, Casaubon, Heinsius,
Voss, Rappolt, and Sebastian Regulus his Imitations of the First
Book of the Æneis (which last I have not read and do not think I
intend to read). In the Preface to the Third Edition his quarrel with
the Swiss school breaks out. We shall see in future, I trust, what this
school taught; it is here of chief, if not of only, import to know what,
according to Gottsched, the “Zürichers” (i.e., those about Bodmer)
did not teach and he did. “While I,” he says in mingled pride and
indignation, “after treating of poetry in general, have dealt with all its
Kinds, and given its own rules to each, so that beginners may turn
them out impeccably, the Zürich poetic has nothing of the sort.” “Man
would,” adds Gottsched incredulously and detesting, “thereout
neither an Ode nor a Cantata, neither an Eclogue nor an Elegy,
neither a Verse Epistle nor a Satire, neither an Epigram nor a Song
of Praise, neither an Epic nor a Tragedy, neither a Comedy nor an
Opera to make learn!”[738]
The Slurk-and-Pott objurgation which follows concerns us little.
But the passage just quoted has real weight. For it shows how, to the
absolute and half-incredulous horror of one party, and probably by
the not entirely conscious or intentional purpose of the other, the
battle of Rule-poetic against Appreciation-poetic had begun. To
Gottsched the Art, or Science, or what-not, of Poetry is a huge
schedule, which may be quite emptied of actual contents and yet
retain its pre-established compartments and the rules for filling them;
to his adversaries Poetry itself is a library, a treasury, a new world full
of things and persons that cause, or do not cause, the poetic
pleasure.
It would be unnecessary to analyse this not quite “the poor last” of
Specimen Classical Poetics. It may be sufficient to say that
details. Gottsched has his first or general and his second or
particular book, the first dealing with the origin and growth of poetry,
the character and taste of a poet, the species of poetic imitation, the
Wonderful in poetry, the Admirable in poetry, and the like, the second
with the usual Kinds in regular order. His occasional utterances are,
at this stage of the history, of far greater importance. We find (p. 86)
the sonnet classed with madrigals, rondeaux, and other “little things
which are worth little.” The old German Heldengedichten are (p. 88),
if not so good as Homer, Virgil, and Voltaire, yet not so bad as
Marino, Ariosto, Chapelain, Saint-Amand, and Milton.[739] Later (p.
109), “Among Englishmen, who are specially inclined to excessive
fantasy, Milton in his Paradise Lost has exhibited everything that
man can possibly do in this kind of schwärmerei.” It is well to
remember that the detested Zürichers were special admirers of
Milton; but there is no reason to suspect Gottsched of being unduly
biassed by this, either here or in the longer examination which he
gives to Milton’s sins afterwards. He is almost as severe on Ariosto
(p. 209), arguing with unruffled gravity that the discoveries of Astolfo
(which he sums up as solemnly as a judge) are not probable, and
finishing with the sad observation that the Italian’s fantasies are
really more like a sick man’s dream than like the reasonable
inventions of a poet.
The good Gottsched, in fact, is an apostle not so much even of
classicism as of that hopeless prosaism to which classicism lent
itself but too easily.[740] Even Voltaire is not sufficiently wahrscheinlich
for him; and he asks (pp. 183, 215) in agitated tones whether Herr
Voltaire, who has elsewhere such sound ideas on the Highest of
Beings, has not made a mistake in the magic scenes of the
Henriade? He is, however, no friend to prosaic diction, and stoutly
defends what he calls (p. 263) “good florid expression,”[741] giving
some better examples, from poets like Amthor and Flemming, than
those who regard the German seventeenth century as a mere desert
might expect. So long as he can get these flights under the
recognised Figures, and so long as they do not outstep “the rules of
prudence” (273), all is well. But the outstepping, as may be guessed,
is not very far off. He finds it, under the guidance of Bouhours, in
Malherbe of all remarkable places, and naturally much more in
Hoffmanswaldau and Lohenstein, as well as in Ariosto and Marino
and Gracián,—being as severe on galimatias and “Phébus” as he
had previously (and quite justly) been against that medley of
German-French which Opitz had long before condemned. There is,
in fact, a good deal of sense as well as of minuteness in Gottsched’s
particular rules, both as to poetry in general and as to the Kinds. In
dealing with these last he gives very extensive examples, and since
these are taken from a division of poetry not much in most readers’
way, they are distinctly interesting. But we must not follow him into
these details; nor is it at all necessary to do so. The neo-classic critic
has at least the virtue of adhering to his own rules, and observing his
own type, with Horatian strictness. There is little danger of finding in
him a politic Achilles, a prudent youth, or an old man who is good-
humoured and does not praise the past. Gottsched says of Epic and
Romance, of Comedy and Tragedy, exactly what we should expect
him to say, if not exactly what we may think he ought to have said.
He cannot understand how Tasso could hope to “unite this Gothic
taste of chivalrous books” (p. 682) with the Greek rules of Heroic
poetry; and he makes so bold as almost to rebuke the great Voltaire
for according the name of Heroic poem to the Lusiad and the
Araucana. But there is a characteristic note in the words, “It is time to
leave the historic-critic part and come to the dogmatic,” which, it
seems, we shall find—all of it—in Aristotle, Dacier, and Le Bossu. It
is, in a different relation, like Balzac’s passons aux choses réelles
—“Never mind the Poems: come to the Rules!”
Gellert, a pupil of Gottsched, at any rate for a time, and a pretty
poet in his own way, betrays that tendency to compromise, if not
actually to capitulate, which we have seen in parts of French
Gellert: he Classicism. His principal critical tractate[742] carries a
transacts. confession in its very title, “How far the Use of the
Rules extends in Rhetoric and Poetry,” and the confession is
emphasised in the text. It comes to this—that the Rules are useful,
but only generally so, and with a “thus far and no further.” It is
evident that, when this point is reached, the Oppression of
Gwenhidwy is on the eve of descending upon the land of Gwaelod,
the dykes are bursting, and the sea is flowing in.[743] We saw just now
Gottsched’s indignant horror at the idea of writing upon poetry
without giving rules to anybody how he shall do anything. He must
have been more horrified still, because there is an element of
treacherous surrender instead of bold defiance in it, at this other
view of the rules as not bad things in their way—to be followed when
it is convenient and when you please, and broken or left behind
when it is convenient, or when you please again. In fact, any such
admission at once reduces the whole Neoclassic system to an
absurdity. A law which may be obeyed or not exactly as people
choose—a sealed pattern which is followed or not at the taste and
fancy of the tailor or other craftsman—you surely cannot too soon
repeal the first and throw the second into the dustbin. And this was,
as we shall see, what Germany very speedily did.
INTERCHAPTER VI.

§ I. THE NEMESIS OF CORRECTNESS.


§ II. THE BALANCE-SHEET OF NEO-CLASSIC
CRITICISM.
I.
In the present Interchapter, as in that at the close of the former
volume, it seems desirable to make the summary twofold: in the first
place, with reference to the Book which the chapter immediately
follows, so as to provide a corresponding view to that given by the
Interchapters of the two earlier Books in the volume itself; in the
second, surveying the State of Criticism—with a look before and
after—at the period which we have reached. This survey is here of
even more importance than it was on the former occasion because
of the greater—in fact the almost absolute—homogeneity of the
subject. But it comes second in order, and for the moment we must
busy ourselves only with that portion or side of Eighteenth-Century
Criticism itself which has been considered in the last three chapters.
In one way Eighteenth-Century criticism has a very notable
advantage over Seventeenth and Sixteenth. In the earliest of the
three, as we saw, criticism exists almost without a critic. Its
authorities are either men of something less (to speak kindly) than
the first rank as men of letters, or else they devote only a slight and
passing attention to the subject. In the Seventeenth this is not quite
so, for Dryden is a host in himself, and Boileau, to name nobody
else, is no common man of letters.
But in the Eighteenth the case is far more altered. English and
French, the two leading literatures of Europe, are copiously and
intensely critical, if not entirely according to knowledge. Addison,
Johnson, Pope, Voltaire, are all dictators of literature, whose fame
and authority, in the case at least of the two last, go far beyond their
own country—and they are all critics. In another country, though in a
division, for reasons, not yet noticed, Goethe, who, if any one, is the
representative man of letters in his own nation, is a critic. The
second class of names—mentioned or to be mentioned—Vico,
Shaftesbury, Lessing, Gray, Buffon, Diderot, and others, approaches
very nearly, if it does not sometimes reach, the first rank. Moreover,
criticism has enormously multiplied its appearances and
opportunities of appearance: it has, in a manner, become popular.
The critical Review—the periodical by means of which it is possible,
and becomes easy, to give critical account of the literature, not
merely of the past but of the present—becomes common. The critic
as such is no longer regarded as a mere pedant; he at least attempts
to take his place as a literary man of the world. If Italy and Spain fail
—even allowing for the remarkable Italian critical group at the
beginning of the century—to justify their old reputation, Germany, on
the other hand, begins that career of critical hard labour to which she
has apparently sentenced herself in perpetuity, and relieves it with
more excursions into the fairer letters than of late. The French,
though subject more severely than men of any other country to the
idols of the time, continue to justify themselves both in the lighter and
the severer critical work.
But the contribution of England is the most interesting of all. Our
position at the time may be compared, with some advantage and no
danger of straining, to that of Spain at a somewhat earlier period
(see pp. 338-350). We do not indeed find, in any English critic after
Dryden, formal expressions of such weight and pregnancy in the
Romantic direction as those which the sharp-sightedness and
patience of Señor Menéndez y Pelayo have extracted from the
Spanish Preceptists. But the general tendency is even more
comprehensive, if not yet catholic. In consequence, very mainly, of
Dryden’s own magnificent championship of Shakespeare and Milton,
it was, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, felt in England that
these two at any rate had to be reckoned with; while Chaucer also
had the same powerful recommendation, and Spenser had never
lost the affection of the fit, though for a time they might be few. With
these four to be somehow or other—by hook or by crook—taken into
consideration, it was impossible for the worst harm to be done; and
the peculiarities of English character, combined with the more
vigorous condition of English creative literature, made the
compromise work far better than that which had been in a manner
entertained in Spain on the subject of Lope and Calderon. It might
have been dangerous if Johnson had written the Lives at the age
which was Pope’s when he wrote the Essay on Criticism; but this
danger also the Fortune of England—kindest of Goddesses, and
most abused in her kindness, yet justified of Fate!—averted.
We shall, it is to be hoped, be able to show in the next volume how
these conditions of Classicism in the several countries affected the
rise or resurrection of Romanticism. For the present we must confine
ourselves to the way in which they affected Classicism itself.
For the purpose we need not repeat, or even recapitulate, what
has been said of its fortunes in Germany, Italy, and Spain, save to
say that in the first-named country it only appeared to disappear,
while in the other two it suffered increasing decrepitude. England
and France are much more important and interesting subjects of
consideration and comparison.
In both, as we saw, Neo-classicism is undoubtedly the accepted
orthodoxy of the time. If that draft confession of Faith, which has
been sketched in a former page, had been laid before an assembly
of the leading men of letters in both countries, many might have
taken exception to its actual form; but as for its spirit, there is hardly
a Frenchman who would have refused to accept it, while not many
Englishmen would have done so. At the same time—until, towards
the later years of the century, the “alarums and excursions” of the
Romantic rising recalled the orthodox to strictness—a more
searching examination would have revealed serious defections and
latitudinarianisms. Pope was perhaps the most orthodox neo-classic,
in criticism as in creation, of the greater men of letters of the time;
but Pope was fond of Spenser. Addison had never thoroughly
cleared his mind up about criticism; but many things in him point the
Romantic way, and we know that some of the more orthodox thought
him weak and doubtful. Voltaire, at one time, had considerable
leanings towards both Shakespeare and Milton; and we have seen
how Johnson, though he resisted and recovered himself, was at
least once within appreciable distance of that precipice of “judging by
the event,” over which, when a Classic once lets himself slip, he falls
for ever and for ever through the Romantic void.
Of lesser men we need not speak much—reference to what has
been said above of the escapades of Fontenelle and Marmontel, of
Steele and Kames, is sufficient. But all these things were as the
liberalities of a securely established orthodoxy, estated and
endowed, dreading no disturbance, and able to be generous to
others—even to indulge itself a little in licence and peccadillo.
Everywhere but in England the vast majority of men, and even in
England all but a very small minority, had no doubt about the general
principles of the Neo-classic Creed. They still judged by Rules and
Kinds; they still had the notion that you must generalise, always
generalise; they still believed that, in some way or other, Homer and
Virgil—especially Virgil—had exhausted the secrets of Epic, and
almost of poetry; and, above all, they were entirely unprepared to
extend patient and unbiassed judgment to something acknowledged,
and acknowledging itself, to be new. On the contrary, they must still
be vindicating even things which they liked, but which appeared to
them to be novel, on the score of their being so very like the old—as
we saw in the case of Blair and Ossian.
The Nemesis of this their Correctness, as far as creation is
concerned, in prose to some extent, but still more in verse, has been
described over and over again by a thousand critics and literary
historians. The highest and most poetical poetry they could not write
at all—except when they had, like Collins, and Smart, and Blake, a
little not merely of furor poeticus, but of actual insanity in their
constitution, or when they violated their own rules by transgressing
into pure nature-poetry or into intense realism of anthropology. In
their own chosen way they could at best achieve the really poetical
rhetoric, but at the same time strictly rhetorical poetry, of Pope, and,
in a lower range, of Akenside.[744] For prose they had the luck to
discover, in the Novel, a Kind which, never having been to any great
extent practised before, was a Kind practically without rules, and so
could make or neglect its rules for itself. In another, not quite so new,
their performance gave striking instance of their limitations. The
Periodical Essay was a thing of almost infinite possibilities: but
because it had happened at first to be written in a certain form by
persons of genius, they turned practice into Kind and Rule once
more, and for nearly the whole century—not merely in England—
went on imitating the Spectator.
In Criticism itself the effects were not wholly different, though of
course to some extent apparently dissimilar. We have seen how,
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the necessary and
ineluctable set of the critical current towards full and free “judging of
authors” seems to have been resisted by a sort of unconscious
recalcitrance on the part of critics; yet how they are drawn nearer
and nearer to it, and, in Dryden’s case at any rate, achieve
admirable results. By the eighteenth, in all countries, the tendency
becomes irresistible. The interest in literature, the bent and
occupations of men of letters great and small, the new institution of
periodicals—all combine to strengthen it: and every kind of critical
estimate, from the elaborate literary history to the brief review,
begins to be written, and is written, ever more copiously.
This was what criticism wanted; and it could not but do good. Yet
the results illustrated, as mere abstract treatises never could have
done, the deficiencies of the common critical theory. The writers save
themselves, as a rule, from the worst mistakes by simply ignoring
that of which they are ignorant. But in regard to the things with which
they do deal the inadequacy and the hamper of their theory are
sufficiently apparent.
Of course the deficiencies of Eighteenth-century criticism are to be
easily matched with other, and sometimes opposite, deficiencies in
other times. It takes considerably more pains to get at something like
a real appreciation of its subject, something more than a bare
reference to schedule, than had been the case, either in ancient
times or in the two centuries immediately preceding. It is very much
better furnished with a critical theory (whether good or bad does not
at the moment matter) than has usually been the case with Criticism
from the early years of the nineteenth century to the early years of
the twentieth. It is not even intentionally ignorant—its ignorance only
proceeds from a mistaken estimate of things as worth or not worth
knowing; and there is rarely to be found in it the bland assumption
that “I like this,” or perhaps rather, “I choose to say I like this,” will
settle everything, which has been not entirely unknown later. But it
combines, in a fashion already perhaps sufficiently illustrated, the
awkwardness of dogmatism and of compromise; and it is perhaps
more exposed to those two terrible questions, “Why?” and “Why
Not?” which are the Monkir and Nakir of all critics and all criticism,
than the criticism of any other period. It is difficult to see how a critic
such as Dennis could give any reasons for admiring Shakespeare at
all, save ethical ones; and it is quite certain that a persistent Te
sequar with the “Why Not?” will dispose of almost all the stock
eighteenth-century objections both to Shakespeare and to all other
suspected persons. In a certain way La Harpe had the advantage of
all his predecessors, for he was at least consistent.
The theory not merely of the authades kallos, the “head-strong
beauty,” but of the “monstrous beauty”—the beauty which is beautiful
but has no business to be so, the miracle-working power which does
work miracles, but is to be forbidden as magia nigra, because it does
not work them according to the rules—may seem itself so monstrous
as to be a patent reductio ad absurdum. In fact it acted as such. Yet
the logic of it is undeniable. It had all along been the unspoken word,
but the word that ought to have been spoken, and had to be spoken
some day. Nor need we grudge the admission that it was in a certain
sense better than the practice (which had been often resorted to
before, and which has not seldom been resorted to since) of
absolutely denying the beauty altogether, with the possible result of
being, after a time, honestly unable to see it.
A certain number of points, affecting the criticism and the taste of
the Eighteenth century in particular, remains to be noticed briefly
before we pass to the consideration of the Neo-classic Dispensation
generally.
In the first place, both could not fail to be influenced most
powerfully by the constant growth of literature in volume; by the
appearance, almost for the first time in large numbers, of the man of
letters by profession; and, lastly, by certain changes in general
education, and so in the quality of writers and readers. To say that
the general reader first made his appearance about 1660, in what
were to be thenceforward the two great literary countries of Europe,
would be an exaggeration, but only an exaggeration, of the truth. He
certainly increased and multiplied in both thenceforward; and, by an
inevitable consequence, at once created the vocation of the writer
and determined the cast and quality of the things written. Matters like
the continued engouement of the French court and French society
for literature, and the alternate exaltation and depression, the
Secretaryships of State and the Grub Street kennels, for it in
England, only concern us indirectly; but they do concern us.
Prosperity and patronage enticed the literary man to work; poverty
and contempt drove him to it, if only to hack-work. Influences came,
too, from the subdivision of Kinds, the specialisation of study
required, the reduction of mere erudition among those who were not
specialists. I should suppose that, taking the average reading of
those who had any reading at all, the late sixteenth century, with a
great part of the seventeenth, was the most erudite time in the
known history of the world. The level of general erudition has been
constantly declining since, though with some fluctuations; and it was
at a specially low level during the later eighteenth century. Although
it is an auxiliary on whose aid Romantic criticism—or rather that
catholic criticism which is neither Classic nor Romantic exclusively,
but both and more than both—can by no means pride herself, there
is little doubt that the increasing neglect of the classics did help to
discredit the criticism which chiefly appealed to them; while the
constantly growing attention to certain kinds of physical science
could not but tell upon the purely literary estimate. The historical
studies which were so great a characteristic of the later century
could not, again, but be powerful unsettlers of the fixed point of view;
the ever-growing popularity of the novel was constantly lifting into
greater prominence a kind of which the ancients had practically
taken no notice at all; the equally constant development of the
newspaper was always adding writers, who knew little of ancient
rules, on subjects of which the ancients had never thought. Even
without the special literary influences which we may hope to consider
in the next Book, the general trend of habit and event made for a
change in criticism; and such a change was imperatively called for,
at once by that reductio ad absurdum of neo-classic strictures, and
by that illogical tolerance of certain great writers of the past, to which
we have given the joint name and status of its Nemesis.[745]
II.
We now have before us the more important, but also the more
difficult, task of summing up the achievements and the shortcomings
of the whole period covered by this volume—the only period, be it
remembered, in which Criticism was regarded from the point of view
of a commonly accepted, if not very commonly understood,
orthodoxy. This of itself is an advantage, which, though it has not
recently counted for very much, will never be overlooked by true
critics. Even if we drop the quod semper, the quod ubique, quod ab
omnibus has a weight which leaves it wholly for the other side to
show case and cause against. Orthodoxy may be really right—really
orthodox; on that head it has at least an even chance against any of
its opponents. Even if it is not, it has merits which they can rarely
claim. It has no temptations for the clever fool, who is perhaps on the
whole the most pestilent, intellectually, of human beings. It demands
a certain amount of self-abnegation, which is always a good thing. It
does not perhaps really offer any greater temptation to the merely
stupid than does the cheap heterodoxy of other times. Above all, it
directly tends to a certain intellectual calmness—to an absence of
fuss, and worry, and pother, which is certainly not one of the least
characteristics of the Judge. At all times the wise man would rather
be orthodox than not; and at most times, though not quite at all, the
wisest men have been orthodox, if only because they have
recognised that every opinion has some amount of truth in it, and
that this truth, plus the advantages of orthodoxy just mentioned, is
greatest, and should prevail.
This will be recognised by all fair-minded persons as a handsome
allowance in any case; it is surely a particularly handsome allowance
when the arbiter happens not to be a partisan of the orthodoxy in
question. And it is quite sincere. The present writer has emerged
from the serious and consecutive examination of “classical” critics,
necessary for the writing of this volume, with a distinctly higher
opinion of them generally, with a higher opinion in most cases in
particular, than he held previously on piecemeal and imperfect
acquaintance. It is only in such a case as that of Boileau—where an
almost consummate faculty of expression masks really small critical
gifts, and where the worst faults of the critical character, personal
rudeness and spite, are continually lurking behind what seem to be
systematic judgments—that the result of the reading has gone the
other way. At the same time, if we take the true reading of illud
Syrianum, “Judex damnatur [capitis cum [in]nocens [culpatur vel
minime],” then the case of the criticism with which we have been
dealing becomes somewhat parlous. It is all the worse because its
worsening is gradual and continuous. The sins of the earliest
Renaissance criticism are sins chiefly of neglect, and are not as a
rule aggravated by commission; while its merits are very great. We
could have done nothing without it: at best we should have had to do
for ourselves all that it has done for us. But the bad side of the
matter betrays itself in the code-making of the seventeenth century;
it is but imperfectly and unsatisfactorily disguised in the
compromises of the earlier eighteenth; and it appears in all its
deformity in the La Harpian recrudescence.
The fault of the whole is undoubtedly but an aggravation of what in
Ancient Criticism could hardly be called with justice a fault at all,
though it was even there a serious defect—the absence, that is to
say, of a wide enough collection of instances from the past, and of
an elastic and tolerant system of trial and admission for the present
and future. We may now[746] use the word “fault” almost without
qualification, proviso, or apology. The Greek could not, and the
Roman until very late days could only to a most limited extent,
exercise the proper sweep of observation and comparison; the man
of the earlier Middle Ages was, from different causes, prevented
from doing so to any effect. But the contemporaries of Lilius Giraldus
who knew (or knew of) Chaucer and Wyatt—still more, in the next
generation, those of Patrizzi who knew Ronsard and the Pléiade—
could plead no such exemption or excuse. They had recovered the
exacter knowledge of the remoter past which the Middle Ages
lacked, the critical spirit which during the Middle Ages was asleep:
and they had accumulated and were accumulating treasures, of
completed mediæval work and of modern work constantly accruing,
enough to give them every comparison, without exception, that they
could have wanted. Their guilt was deepening daily as their
opportunities increased.
For they neglected these opportunities, they “sinned” these
mercies, almost without exception. If England in any way deserved
the good fortune that fell to her at the close of the eighteenth century
and the beginning of the nineteenth, it was because she had never
wholly denied either Chaucer or Spenser, either Shakespeare or
Milton. But the just men who thus saved her were wofully few, and
they were almost all of them followers of Naaman, who extorted a
permission to bow in the house of Rimmon, rather than of the
glorious Three Children, who would do obeisance to no graven
image that any king set up. If Germany had the honour of leading the
way—or very nearly leading the way—in the Critical Reformation, it
was because, from the very beginning of her really modern literature,
she had put faith in her Heldenbuch and her Bergreihen. But even
this faith was rather hesitating for a long time, and it had no foothold
in courtly, and curial, and academic places. The men who were the
real pioneers in the revival or commencement of that universal study
of literature which alone can lead to a universal criticism, were as a
rule mere scholars and antiquaries, men like Oldys and Capell, La
Monnoye and Sainte-Palaye, Sanchez and Sedano. Gray, the
greatest man of letters by far who at least fumbled with the key of the
enchanted garden, did but fumble with that key: and his successors
Percy and Warton, who opened what they could, were not great men
of letters at all. Abroad, and especially in France, their analogues,
such as Marmontel, never got so far even as they did. In Spain it
became fashionable to deny Lope if not Cervantes: in Italy Dante-
worship was too often, if not in most cases, lip-worship only.
The spectacle of these centuries is almost infinitely interesting and
surprising. I cannot, after having, with not a little pains, attained to
some Pisgah-sight of it, exhaust my own wonder, especially in
regard to the Eighteenth, or disentangle myself from that fatalism
which I have already—with the result of some misunderstanding in
the house of no un-friends—announced at the end of the First
volume. We can understand the Sixteenth century, with its
vernaculars hardly yet fully formed, with their greatest literature
coming and to come, with an almost excusable distaste for the
immediate past, and with the full eagerness—the honeymoon
intoxication—of their intercourse with the classics upon them—we
can understand this being excessive in admitting, in continuing, in
caricaturing, the critical principles of the classics themselves. We
can also, if not quite so fully, understand how the dwindling
enthusiasms of the Seventeenth, with its still greater sense of “the
petty done, the undone vast” in the matter of mere erudition, and its
thick-coming concerns of party politics, material progress, physical
science, rivalry of nations, and the like—we can understand its
sinking, in mid-journey or thereabouts, to an “age of prose and
sense,” where the prose was as certain as the sense was sometimes
problematical. But the Eighteenth was beginning to be disengaged,
to specialise, to take stock, to disuse the Chronicle and begin the
History. How, we must ask ourselves, could men like Muratori and
Gravina, like Addison and Johnson, like Fontenelle and Du Bos, rest
even partly satisfied (for wholly, as we have seen, some of them at
least were not) with literary sealed patterns which admittedly would
not fit the greatest admitted literature of all their respective countries
except France, and which presented, to the not insufficient self-
sufficiency of Frenchmen, the proposition that, for hundreds of years,
French men of letters had been barbarians, if not idiots?
There is no explanation but Grandgousier’s, eked a little by the
remembrance that—as we shall, it is to be hoped, see in the next
volume—there was a searching of hearts, a moving of the waters,
not very late, in fact very early, in the Eighteenth century itself. But,
as we have seen already, the creed of the majority, the orthodoxy of
the time, admitted no hint of this. It made a few concessions or
extensions—till it found them obviously unsafe—in the direction of
amiable but illogical compromise in particulars. It yielded up no jot of
the general creed. It was still matter of breviary circa 1780, as it had
begun to be circa 1580, that the Fable was the Poem (let us say that
if Homer had written an argument of the Iliad, and had left off there,
he would have done all that was actually necessary); that you must
follow Nature by following the ancients; that you must not use epic
verse in non-epic poetry, and so forth. In all countries, or almost all,
—the extreme literary poverty and disarray of Germany here serving
her in good stead,—these general assumptions, and the many
others which have been noticed in the foregoing pages, had
narrowed down to yet others of the particular kind—that the pause in
an English verse must be absolutely within a syllable or two of the
middle; that a French Alexandrine must not have the impudence to
overflow into its neighbour; and the like. And the whole sums itself
up all the more strikingly—because of the doubtful and
argumentative tone of the passage—in that memorable decision of
Johnson’s which has been discussed above, the decision justifying
Rymer, justifying La Harpe, that we must not “judge by the event,”—
that the presence of the fig is no proof of the nature of the fig-tree.
No very elaborate indications of the faults inseparable from this
style of criticism can be necessary. That if carried out rigorously (as
in some instances at least it was) it would simply have sterilised and
petrified the literary production of the world, is of course obvious.
That journey au fond de l’inconnu pour trouver du nouveau, which,
with whatever success or failure it may meet, however dangerous it
may be in some high functions and departments of Life and Thought,
is the motive principle of Art, was barred by it at once. It was no
question of “progress” in the very likely chimerical sense of
improvement; there was to be not even any difference. “To-morrow”
was not, according to the proverb, to be “a new day”: if the men of
this school did not go as far as Musette and pronounce that Demain,
c’est une fatuité du calendrier, they held that it was to be as
yesterday, and much more also. It is equally obvious that this
doctrine positively invited indulgence in some of the worst faults of
criticism. The critic who nowadays compasses all the reference
shelves of the British Museum in order to find one discrepancy with
his author, and then triumphs over him, is mostly confined to dates
and names, or to more or less transparent erections of personal
opinion (or personal ignorance) into standards, which the fairly
intelligent reader takes for what they are worth. A hundred and fifty
years ago the child of Momus had much better cards in his hand.
The “exact scales of Bossu” were not only infinitely complicated and
elaborate, but people in general, however intelligent, were by no
means inclined to find any fault with them or question their justice.
He had a hundred chances, to one that he now has, of catching his
author tripping under statute, and without any actual garbling or
dishonesty.
But between the dangers on the great scale and the dangers on
the small, which have been indicated in the last paragraph, there
were many of intermediate kinds. Without absolute distrust of novelty
or unfamiliarity as such on the one hand, and without a mere
peddling tendency to pick holes on the other, a critic under this
dispensation might, and almost must, find himself distracted,
hampered, wellnigh mantrapped, in his critical investigations. A
dreamlike network or chain of obsessions was upon him. To submit
himself frankly to the effect of the work and judge it as he would a
prospect or a picture,[747] a vintage or a face, was forbidden him. It
was his duty, in the first place, if the author openly classed his work
in any Kind, to decide whether it really belonged to this or to another;
if the author had omitted that ceremony, to determine the
classification sedulously for himself. Then he had to remember, or
look up, the most celebrated ancient examples of the Kind, or those
modern ones which had obtained the credit of being most like the
ancients; and to decide whether the resemblance was sufficient in
general. And then he had to descend—if descent be possible in this
process of grovelling—to particulars, and see if they were “according
to Cocker.” If everything were entirely en règle, he was at liberty to
admire and enjoy, supposing that, after the preliminaries, he had any
disposition towards admiration and enjoyment left in him.
This is not a caricature; it is absolutely exact according to the
“regulation” theory: and as the examples quoted before will have
shown, and as hundreds of others might be produced to show, it is
by no means untrue to practice. A critic, great, or generous, or
happily both, might transcend his brief, be better than his creed, as
in that noble eulogy of Gray’s Elegy which makes up for much in
Johnson’s Life of the poet. But these were works of supererogation;
and it is not quite certain that the exercise of them was entirely
orthodox. The “stop-watch” was orthodox: it was the very centre and
pulse of the machine of neo-classic criticism.
I do not think that it is part of my duty as a Historian to support this
view by any further argument. I have given the strongest possible, in
a minute, and I believe faithful, exposition of the actual survey, the
actual opinions, the actual processes and judgments of neo-classic
critics. If it is necessary to say any more, let it be this only. The
weakness of their position is sufficiently shown by the fact that it
could not bear the light of a historical knowledge of literature. There
was none such, so long as it lasted: and when that light shone, it fell.
The coincidences may not be causative; but it is for others to show
that they are not.
If, however, any one should conclude from these strictures that, in
the view of the present writer, the critical work of these three
centuries was only evil continually, he would make a very great
mistake. Moreover, putting all personal views out of the question, it is
certain that this could not be the case. In almost all arts and even
sciences, but in Art even more than in Science, the task set before
the human faculties is a gigantic “Rule of False,” as the older
arithmetic books called it, in which, by following out certain
hypotheses, and ascertaining how and to what extent you are led
wrong by them, you at last discover the right way. The most
grotesque error is thus a benefit to Humanity, which, indeed,
sometimes shows itself conscious enough of the beneficial character
to perform the experiment over and over again. And further, in all
arts and in all sciences, but especially in the higher division of Art,
the reward of these excursions is not confined to the somewhat
negative advantage of discovering that man need go that way no
more. Corollaries and episodes—wayside windfalls of the Muses—
await, not so thinly spread, the adventurous and single-hearted
practitioner of Allegory as of Alchemy, on the acrostic as on the
astrolabe. And considering the secondary or parasitic character
which so specially belongs to Criticism, it is inevitable, not merely
that these “bonuses,” these “extras,” should be more abundant here
than anywhere else, but that the regular profits of the ordinary work
should be considerable. Unless the critic is utterly incompetent and
bad—unless he is a very Rymer, I do not say a Dennis, much less a
Boileau—his mere contact with a new work of art must result in
something useful, in a critical datum and fact for the future. It is very
unlikely—if he is a person of even rather more than average brains it
is practically impossible—that the exact equation or conjunction of
his temperament, and his equipment, and the character of the work,
will ever recur. It is, ex hypothesi, quite certain that it can never have
occurred before. That he judges under a certain system, even a
wrong one, will not detract from the value of the result, save in
quantity. There will still be the actual fact—acquired to the stock of
critical data for the future—that a critical power, say A, applied under
the restrictions of system m or n, to work B, has resulted in the
judgment x. And this result, in its own line and sphere, is as much a
“thing,” and a thing of interest, to the critical student of literature, as a
new beetle to the man of science, or a new judgment of the House of
Lords to the man of law. Nay, to such a student it has a higher
interest still: it is in rank and line (mutatis mutandis again) with the
work criticised, with a picture, with a sonata, as a thing of art itself.
And critics in these centuries, from these points of view and
others, estated criticism more richly than it could have hoped to be
endowed when the Humanists began once more to attack and
defend Poetry, or when Daniello a little later set himself down to write
the first treatise of criticism proper in a vernacular language. They
attempted, and to the best of their power arranged, the more general
questions of the Art, always with zeal, if not always with discretion;
they did valuable, if also somewhat and sometimes mistaken, work
in its intermediate regions; and slowly, grudgingly, but surely, they set
themselves to the apparently humbler but really fruitful work of actual
critical examination of literature, at first as it had been provided and
already criticised long ago, at last as it was being provided by the
flying day. Their own theories, right or wrong, they worked out with
altogether admirable patience and thoroughness, applying them, too,
with a faithfulness which must excite admiration, if it cannot
command agreement. And, as we have taken all fair pains to show,
they not unfrequently strayed and stumbled upon outside truths,
leant over the border of their somewhat narrow world and pried into
others, after a fashion which, when the due time came, was sure to
start more adventurous discoverers on wider paths of exploration.
It would be superfluous to extend this already long volume with
any list of selected specimens of individual achievement and
excellence. I hope, indeed, that this book may attract or help
attention to some critics—Capriano, Cinthio, Patrizzi, Ogier are a
very few examples—who are at present very little known: and to

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