Anatomical Laboratory Building. This was soon outgrown and the laboratory of pathology was established in the central part of the long, low building on the north side of the campus which was largely occupied by the Homeopathic Medical School and Hospital and which was known for years as the "old" Hospital. It was here that Warthin began his laboratory teaching of pathology. The interior of this laboratory is shown in a picture of the Pathology Staff and Journal Club of 1898-99 in the Aldred Scott Warthin Anniversary Volume (p. 116). Pathology was never taught in the original Medical Building which faced East University Avenue where the Randall Laboratory of Physics now stands.
In the new building (1903) now designated the West Medical Building, comparatively generous provision was made for pathology. The more easterly of the two amphitheaters was equipped for the performance of necropsies, and a large room in the southeast corner was arranged as the Pathology Museum. Offices, laboratories, animal rooms, and storerooms occupied the remainder of the east half of the first floor and a part of the east half of the basement.
In 1926 the completion of the East Medical Building made possible the removal of three departments from the older building and the Department of Pathology acquired the basement space and the east half of the second floor, which had been used for work in anatomy and histology. Half of the one-story addition, which had been built in the central court as an overflow anatomical laboratory during World War I, became a satisfactory animal room. This expansion relieved the crowded condition created by the necessity of adding both lectures and laboratory instruction for dental students in separate classes, and by the great increase in graduate students.
Prior to 1926, bodies upon which necropsies were to be performed were transported from the Hospital to the Medical Building on the campus. All surgical specimens, also, were carried to the Medical Building. Under this plan the essential services of the Department of Pathology to the clinical units at the Hospital were rendered with great difficulty and with many opportunities for confusion and delay. Immediate frozen section diagnoses, while the patient was under anesthesia, were almost impossible. With the completion of the Hospital in 1925, the department moved into space well arranged for its needs on the subbasement floor of the surgical wing. In spite of the "subbasement" designation, these new laboratories were above the ground level. A large museum room, staff offices, a necropsy amphitheater, and numerous laboratories for technicians were provided. Most of the corresponding area of the sub-subbasement floor was equipped for storage of prepared microscopical sections and of paraffin blocks. The first necropsy in the Hospital amphitheater was performed by Dr. Warthin on February 9, 1926. This was No. 2045, A-147-AD.
At the Hospital no provision had been made for teaching sophomore medical students, dental students, or graduate students. Accordingly, space on the old campus was retained and gradually remodeled in order to meet special needs as they arose. Technical staffs were maintained both on the campus and at the Hospital. Between them the work of the department was divided on the principle that all material originating in the Hospital (necropsies and surgical specimens) was to be examined there, while all other material (surgical specimens from the Health Service and College of Dentistry, specimens from outside hospitals and physicians, and all research material) was to be prepared and
