Aldred Scott Warthin

Aldred Scott Warthin was a passionate musician. Before commencing medical studies, in 1877 he received a Teacher's Diploma of Music from the Cincinnati Conservatory. He then attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he was conferred doctor of medicine in 1891, and doctor of philosophy in 1893, before going to Vienna and Freiburg for further education. While in medical school he supported himself by teaching music lessons and serving as a church organist. After his return from Europe he, turned to the study of pathology, becoming demonstrator at his alma mater in 1896, instructor 1897, assistant professor 1899, junior professor 1902, and in 1903 professor as well as director of the pathological laboratory.

Warthin played a crucial part in helping the University of Michigan Medical Library become its own entity. He was Chairman of the Medical Library Committee and was instrumental in the growth of the medical library's collection of medical incunabula and the Haass and Pilcher Collections.

Warthin translated Ernst Ziegler’s (1849-1905) Lehrbuch der allgemeinen und speziellen
Pathologischen Anatomie und Pathogenese (2 volumes; Jena, 1881-1882) into English. He was the publisher of Annals of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia.

• Practical pathology. Ann Arbor, 1896; 2nd edition, 1922.
• Traumatic lipaemia and fatty embolism.
  Int Clin., 1913, 23 ser., 4: 171-227.
  Classical description of pulmonary fat embolism.
• The medical aspect of mustard gas poisoning.
  With C. Weller. St. Louis, 1919.
• Old age. New York, 1929.
• The creed of a biologist. New York, 1930.
• The Physician of the Dance of Death. A Historical Study of the Evolution of the Dance of Death Mythus in Art.
  New York : P. B. Hoeber, inc., 1931.