University of Michigan. Dept. of Pathology.

In the early history of the Medical School, most of the heads of departments were simultaneously heads of other departments, and the head was generally the only faculty in the department. This was the case in the Department of Pathology. The first Professor of Pathology (as well as of Physiology) was Jonathan Adams Allen. He lost the support of his colleagues and was dismissed by the Regents in 1854.

Samuel Denton, who had been involved in the University since the first Board of Regents meeting in 1837, serving on various committees, then took over Allen's position, in addition to his own as Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. He died in 1860.

Alonzo Benjamin Palmer had been Professor of Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Diseases of Women and Children since 1854. After Denton's death, Palmer took his title of Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Pathology. Palmer served in this position until his death in 1887; he was also Dean of the Medical School for the last twelve of these years. During his tenure, in 1882, twenty to thirty microscopes were acquired and put to use in an advanced elective course in normal and pathological histology. The Pathological Laboratory was first mentioned in the 1888-89 course catalog of the Medical School. Also during this time, other instructors of pathology were added to the faculty.

In 1888, when Heneage Gibbes replaced Palmer, the chair of pathology was the only department that Gibbes was appointed to chair, so that he would have more time for laboratory work. However, he was no longer allowed to have any assistants or other instructors. Gibbes' views on the nature of bacteria (that they were insignificant in the production of disease) caused rifts between him and his colleagues (see Wilfred B. Shaw's The University ofMichigan:,4n Encyclopedic Survey, Volume II). However, he remained Professor of Pathology until 1895, when he left for Detroit's Michigan College of Medicine.

In 1895, George Dock was assigned the chair of Pathology, in addition to his chair as Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine, which he had held since 1891. Aldred Scott Warthin, (who was also trained in music) was Dock's assistant, and with Dock's new responsibilities, he needed Warthin as an Instructor in Pathology. Warthin was a prolific researcher, and was selected as Chairman and Professor of Pathology and Director of the Pathological Laboratory in 1903.

Warthin, Carl V. Weller and George Herrman researched the pathological effects of mustard gas during the period of World War 1. The studies appeared in the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine and as a book.

In 193 1, Weller was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Director of the Laboratory to replace Warthin. A. James French took the position in 1956, and Peter A. Ward in 1980.

From the guide to the Dept. of Pathology (University of Michigan) publications, 1973-1997, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)