THE DEPARTMENT OF PATHOLOGY
THE early history of the Department of Pathology reflects the economy in personnel which existed throughout the University. Pathology was included in the plan of teaching at the birth of the Medical School, but of necessity the responsibility for this function was combined with a similar relationship to one or several other branches of medicine.
For the greater part, the history of the department can be written around the men who have borne the title of Professor of Pathology. Only three of them have not been concomitantly titular heads of other departments.
On January 10, 1850, Dr. Jonathan Adams Allen (Middlebury '45, M.D. Castleton Medical College '46) became Professor of Pathology and Physiology, but dissension developed in the faculty and Allen lost the support of his colleagues, who petitioned for his dismissal. Such action was taken by the Regents, and Allen's services to the University terminated on June 30, 1854.
Samuel Denton (M.D. Castleton Medical College '25) had been present at the first meeting of the Board of Regents, June 5, 1837, and he had served on numerous committees concerned with the establishment of the University in Ann Arbor and with the development of the physical aspects of the University. He was also a member of the first Committee on Professors and Salaries. During the winter of 1849-50, the appointment of Dr. Denton to a professorship in the Medical School had been proposed, and the physicians of Jackson submitted a petition in support of this proposal. Accordingly, in 1850 Denton was appointed Professor of Physic. Shortly thereafter came the dismissal of Allen and apparently his duties, so far as they concerned pathology, were taken over by Denton. No minute to this effect appears in the Proceedings of the Regents, but it seems to have been customary during that period for the professors in the Medical School to apportion actual teaching responsibilities among themselves without too strict regard for the implications of their academic titles. That the professorship of pathology had been assigned to Denton in fact, is made certain by an item in the Proceedings of the Regents, September 11, 1860: "The President formally announced the decease of Dr. Samuel Denton, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and of Pathology." Dr. Denton had died on August 17, 1860.
On September 12, 1860, Alonzo Benjamin Palmer (M.D. College of Physicians and Surgeons [West. Dist. N. Y.] '39, A.M. hon. Nashville '55, LL.D. Michigan '81) was transferred to the chair made vacant by the death of Dr. Denton. Dr. Palmer's services to the Medical Department in other capacities had been continuous since October 1, 1854. In fact, he had been appointed Professor of Anatomy in 1852, but could not be called