Aldred Scott Warthin was an American pathologist whose research laid the foundation for understanding the heritability of certain cancers. He has been described as "the father of cancer genetics."
In 1892 he was appointed a demonstrator in internal medicine at the University of Michigan. In 1895 he took charge of the pathology laboratory, and in 1903 he was named laboratory director and professor of pathology, positions he held until his death in 1931. He also served as chair of the pathology department for most of that time. He taught more than 3,000 medical students, who described him as "the greatest living teacher of pathology". He was a master of the American College of Physicians and served as its first vice president. He also served as editor of the Annals of Clinical Medicine. In 1930 he published a book "The Creed of a Biologist: A Biologic Philosophy of Life. It he argues in favor of the theory, popular at the time, of the genetic transmission of acquired traits and extols the importance of using Eugenics for the protection and improvement of the race. The book ends with the following postscript: "CREDO :: I BELIEVE IN THE LAW * IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THE GERM PLASM AND THE CREATIVE * PROGRESSIVE EVOLUTION OF LIFE * IN THE VARIABILITY OF THE VALUE OF THE GERM PLASM THROUGH HEREDITY & ENVIRONMENT * IN THE TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS * AND IN THE CONSCIOUS IMPROVEMENT OF THE RACE THROUGH THE LAWS OF VOLITIVE EUGENICS * I BELIEVE THAT THE AIM OF THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE IS THE PROTECTION * IMPROVEMENT AND CONTINUATION OF THE IMMORTAL GERM PLASM *....."
Research
In 1895, a young seamstress of his acquaintance told him about her family's long history of cancer deaths. Intrigued, he researched her family's history, searching death records and administering questionnaires, and found multiple cases of cancer. He followed the family, which he called "family G", for decades, and in 1913 he published their history in the Archives of Internal Medicine. His article was one of the first to make the case that cancer was heritable in humans, and the medical pedigree of family G is one of the longest and most detailed cancer genealogies in the world. By 1913 he had worked up the pedigrees of 29 cancer-susceptible families. He found one family in which 27 of the 144 descendants of a cancer patient also had cancer. He located several sets of identical twins that developed identical cancers in mirror-image sites. He became convinced that both susceptibility and immunity to cancer could be inherited. He began his genetic studies before Gregor Mendel's principles of genetics became widely known. It took many decades before the heritability of cancer was finally accepted by the medical community, partly through the research of Henry T. Lynch. Although he is best known today for his groundbreaking research on the heritability of cancer, during his lifetime he was better known for other things. He studied the pathology of syphilis for 20 years and became the world's leading authority on the subject. He and his research associate developed the Warthin-Starry stain still used to demonstrate the presence of syphilis spirochetes. Some thought his most important work was his study of diseases of the reticuloendothelial system. He studied the effects of the chemical weapon mustard gas, about which he co-wrote a book in 1919.
Personal life
In 1900 he married another physician, Katherine Angell, and they had four children. She died in 1940. His hobbies included golf, raising flowers, and collecting artistic portrayals of death, about which he wrote a scholarly monograph, The Physician of the Dance of Death. He died suddenly of asthma on May 23, 1931. He is buried in South Park Cemetery, Greensburg, Indiana.
Legacy
Adenolymphoma of the parotid gland, or papillary cystadenoma lymphomatosum, is better known as "Warthin's tumor"; he described two cases in 1929.
One of the pulmonary signs of pericarditis is named "Warthin's sound".
The Warthin-Starry stain, a silver-based stain for spirochetes, is named for him.
He discovered a species of snail that was named in his honor.
In 1927 his students and colleagues honored him with a Festschrift named Contributions to Medical Science.
