THE PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS SOCIETY OF 
LIVERPOOL 
W. B. WARRINGTON, M.D., Director 
INTRODUCTION 
The introduction of the more exact methods of investigation to the Art of Medicine has 
added considerably to the ability of the practitioner to diagnose the various forms of disease. 
So much is this so that a Clinical Laboratory is regarded by many as a necessary adjunct 
to a hospital. Important works dealing with the application of Bacteriology and Chemistry to 
bedside medicine have been published by Von Jaksch, Simon of the John Hopkins University, 
Hutchison and Rainey, and others, and have done much to emphasize the value of following 
cases in the Laboratory. Much of the work and time of a distinguished Liverpool alumnus, the 
late Professor Kanthack, was devoted to the same idea, viz., the intimate relations which 
should subsist between the bedside and the Laboratory. In May, 1897, Professor Boyce 
considered that an attempt should be made to place the facilities offered by the Laboratory at the 
disposal of the Medical Practitioners of the neighbourhood. 
Invitations were accordingly sent to a large number of members of the profession residing 
in the North of England and Wales, asking their co-operation in the formation of a society 
whose object it should be to thus supplement the work of the clinician. 
About 150 practitioners responded to the invitation, and promised a small annual 
subscription in order to defray the necessary working expenses. With the removal of the 
Pathological Department to the Thompson Yates Laboratories the labour of those who undertook 
the examination of the various morbid specimens was greatly faciliated, and permitted of a more 
satisfactory organization. The society is now nearing the close of its third year, and the number 
of reports issued to its members has doubled since its foundation. There can be little doubt that 
the value of work of this kind will increase, and it is within very recent date that the important 
agglutinative action of Typhoid serum has been utilised in a routine way for the diagnosis of that 
insidious disease. 
WORK OF THE SOCIETY 
I. Medical Practitioners joining the society are enabled to receive, free of cost, reports on 
the following subjects ; — 
1. Suspected tuberculosis. 
2. Suspected diphtheria. 
3. Typhoid serum reaction. 
4. Nature of tumours. 
5. Nature of urinary deposits. 
More extensive investigations can, however, be undertaken should occasion arise. 
