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VIRCHOW, RUDOLF (1821-1902)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VIRCHOW, See also:RUDOLF (1821-1902) , See also:German pathologist and politician, was See also:born on the 13th of See also:October 1821 at Schivelbein, in See also:Pomerania, where his See also:father was a small See also:farmer and shopkeeper. As a boy he attended the Volksschule of his native See also:village, and at the See also:age of seventeen, having passed through the gymnasium of See also:Koslin, went to See also:Berlin to study See also:medicine. He took his See also:doctor's degree in 1843, and almost immediately received an See also:appointment as assistant-surgeon at the Charite See also:Hospital, becoming See also:pro-See also:rector three years later. In 1847 he began to See also:act as Privaldozent in the university, and founded with Reinhardt the Archie See also:fur pathologische Anatomic and Physiologie, which, after his collaborator's See also:death in 1852, he carried on alone, and in 1848 he went as a member of a See also:government See also:commission to investigate an outbreak of typhus in upper See also:Silesia. About the same See also:time, having shown too open sympathy with the revolutionary or reforming tendencies of 1848, he was for See also:political reasons obliged to leave Berlin and retire to the seclusion of See also:Wurzburg, the medical school of which profited enormously by his la:.ours as See also:professor of pathological See also:anatomy, and secured a wide See also:extension of its reputation. In 1856 he was recalled to Berlin as crdinary professor of pathological anatomy in the university, and as director of the Pathological See also:Institute formed a centre for See also:research whence has flowed a See also:constant stream of See also:original See also:work on the nature and processes of disease. On the 14th of October 1901 his eightieth birthday was celebrated in Berlin amid a brilliant gathering of men of See also:science, See also:part of the ceremonies taking See also:place in the new Pathological Museum, near the Charite, which owes its existence mainly to his See also:energy and See also:powers of organization. On that occasion all See also:Europe See also:united to do him See also:honour, many learned See also:societies sent delegates to See also:express their congratulations, the See also:king of See also:Italy gave him his own portrait on a See also:gold medallion, and among the numerous addresses he received was one from Kaiser Wilhelm II., who took the opportunity of presenting him with the See also:Grand Gold See also:Medal for Science. In the See also:early part of 1902 he slipped from a tramcar in Berlin and fractured his thigh; from this injury he never really recovered, and his death occurred in Berlin on the 5th of See also:September 1902. Wide as were Virchow-'s studies, and successful as he was in all, yet the foremost place must be given to his achievements in pathological investigation. He may, in fact, be called the father of See also:modern See also:pathology, for his view, that every See also:animal is constituted by a sum of vital See also:units, each of which manifests the characteristics of See also:life, has almost uniformly dominated the theory of disease.since the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century, when it was enunciated. The beginnings of his See also:doctrine of cellular pathology date from the earliest See also:period in his career.

When, towards the end of his student-days in Berlin, he was acting as clinical assistant in the See also:

eye See also:department of the Berlin Hospital, he noticed that in keratitis and corneal wounds healing took place without the See also:appearance of plastic exudation. This observation led him to further work, and he succeeded in showing that in vascular See also:organs the presence of cells in inflammatory exudates is not the result of exudation but of multiplication of pre-existing cells. Eventually he was able to prove that the biological doctrine of amnia cellula e cellula applies to pathological processes as well as to those of normal growth, and in his famous See also:book on Cellular-pathologie, published at Berlin in 1858, he established what See also:Lord See also:Lister described as the " true and fertile doctrine that every morbid structure consists of cells which have been derived from pre-existing cells as a progeny." But in addition to bringing forward a fundamental and philosophical view of morbid processes, which probably contributed more than any other single cause to vindicate for pathology the place which he claimed for it among the biological sciences, Virchow made many important contributions to See also:histology and morbid anatomy and to the study of particular diseases. The See also:classification into See also:epithelial organs, connective tissues, and the more specialized muscle and See also:nerve, was largely due to him; and he proved the presence of neuroglia in the See also:brain and See also:spinal See also:cord, discovered crystalline haematoidine, and made out the structure of the umbilical cord. Medical science further owes to him the classification of new growths on a natural histological basis, the elucidation of leucaemia, glioma and lardaceous tumours, and detailed investigations into many diseases—See also:tuberculosis, pyaemia, See also:diphtheria, leprosy, typhus, &c. Among the books he published on pathological and medical subjects may be mentioned Vorlesungen uber Pathologie, the first See also:volume of which was the Cellular-pathologie (1858), and the remaining three See also:Die Krankhaften Geschwulste (1863–67); See also:Hand-See also:buck der speziellen Pathologie and Therapie (3 vols., 1854-62), in collaboration with other German surgeons; Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen Medizin (1856); Vier Reden uber Leben and Kranksein (1862) ; Untersuchungen uber die Entwicklung See also:des Schadelgrundes (1857); Lehre von den Trichinen (1865) ; Ueber den See also:Hunger-typhus (1868) ; and Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der bifentlichen Medizin and der Seuchenlehre (1879). In See also:England his pathological work won See also:general recognition. The Royal Society awarded him the See also:Copley medal in 1892, and selected him as Croonian lecturer in the following See also:year, his subject being the position of pathology among the biological sciences; and in 1898 he delivered the second See also:Huxley memorial lecture at Charing See also:Cross Hospital. Another science which Virchow cultivated with conspicuous success was See also:anthropology, which he did much to put on a See also:sound See also:critical basis. At the See also:meeting of the Naturforscherversammlung at See also:Innsbruck in 1869, he was one of the founders of the German Anthropological Society, of which he became See also:president in the following year; and from 1869 onwards he presided over the Berlin Anthropological Society, also acting as editor of its proceedings in the Zeitschrift f2ir Ethnologie. In See also:ethnology he published a volume of essays on the See also:physical anthropology of the Germans, with See also:special reference to the See also:Frisians; and at his instance a See also:census, which yielded remarkable results, was carried out among school See also:children throughout See also:Germany, to determine the relative See also:distribution of blondes and brunettes. His archaeological work included the investigation of See also:lake dwellings and other prehistoric structures; he went with See also:Schliemann to See also:Troy in 1879, fruits of the expedition being two books, ZurLandeskunde der Troas (188o) and Alt-trojanische Graben and Schadel (1882); in 1881 he visited the See also:Caucasus, and on his return published Des Graberfeld von Koban ins Lande der Osseten; and in 1888 he accompanied Schliemann to See also:Egypt, See also:Nubia and the Peloponnese.

As a politician Virchow had an active career. In 1862 he was elected a member of the Prussian See also:

Lower See also:House. Professing advanced Liberal and democratic views, he was a founder and See also:leader of the Fortschrittspartei, and the expression Kullurkampf had, it is believed, its origin in one of his electoral manifestoes. For many years he was chairman of the See also:finance See also:committee, and in that capacity may be looked upon as a See also:chief founder of the constitutional Prussian See also:Budget See also:system. In 188o he entered the Reichstag as representative of a Berlin See also:constituency, but was ousted in 1893 by a Social Democrat. In the Reichstag he became the leader of the Opposition, and a vigorous antagonist to See also:Bismarck. In the See also:local and municipal politics of Berlin again he took a leading part, and as a member of the municipal See also:council was largely responsible for the trans-formation which came over the See also:city in the last See also:thirty years of the 19th century. That it has become one of the healthiest cities in the See also:world from being one of the unhealthiest is attributable in See also:great measure to his insistence on the See also:necessity of sanitary reform, and it was his unceasing efforts that secured for its inhabitants the drainage system, the sewage farms and the See also:good See also:water-See also:supply, the benefits of which are reflected in the decreased death-See also:rate they now enjoy. In respect cf hospitals and the treatment of the sick his energy and know-ledge were of enormous See also:advantage to his See also:country, both in times of See also:peace and of See also:war, and the unrivalled See also:accommodation for medical treatment possessed by Berlin is a See also:standing See also:tribute to his name, which will be perpetuated in one of the largest hospitals of the city. Of his writings on social and political questions may be mentioned Die Erziehung des Weibes (1865); Ueber die nationals Entwicklung and Bedeutung der Naturwissenschaften (1865); Die Aufgaben der Naturwissenschaften in dem neuen See also:national en Leben Deutschlends (1871); Die Freiheit der LVissenschaft See also:im modernen Staat (1877), in which he opposed the See also:idea of See also:Haeckel—that the principles of See also:evolution should be taught in elementary See also:schools—on the ground that they were not as yet proved, and that it was mischievous to See also:teach a See also:hypothesis which still remained in the speculative See also:stage. See Lives by See also:Becher (Berlin, 1894) and Pagel (See also:Leipzig, 1906); Rudolf Virchow als Patholog by Marchand (See also:Munich, 1902) : Rudolf Virchow als Arzt by Ebstein (See also:Stuttgart, 1903) ; Gedachtnisrede auf R. Virchow (Berlin, 1903) ; and Briefe Virchows an See also:seine Eltern 1839-1864, by See also:Marie Rabl (Leipzig, 1907).

A bibliography of his See also:

works was published at Berlin in 1901.

End of Article: VIRCHOW, RUDOLF (1821-1902)

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