This book had its beginning in 1967 when Shirley G. Driscoll and Kurt Benirschke wrote in English the volume on placental pathology for the Henke-Lubarsch, the noted German Handbook of Pathology.  There seemed to be a need for wider distribution of the text and it was reprinted by Springer Verlag, New York, essentially the only book available devoted just to the human placenta.   Dr. Benirschke authored 5 subsequent editions in collaboration with Peter Kaufmann, Rebecca Baergen and Graham Burton in 1990 (2nd edition), 1995 (3rd edition), 2000 (4th edition), 2006 (5th edition) and 2012 (6th...