Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

" and as the founder of

social medicine The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through # understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and # fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a health ...

, and to his colleagues, the "Pope of medicine". Virchow studied medicine at the Friedrich Wilhelm University under

Johannes Peter Müller Johannes Peter Müller (14 July 1801 – 28 April 1858) was a German physiologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist, ichthyology, ichthyologist, and herpetology, herpetologist, known not only for his discoveries but also for his ability ...

. While working at the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

hospital, his investigation of the 1847–1848

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

epidemic in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...

laid the foundation for

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

in Germany, and paved his political and social careers. From it, he coined a well known aphorism: "Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale". His participation in the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

led to his expulsion from Charité the next year. He then published a newspaper ''Die Medizinische Reform'' (''The Medical Reform''). He took the first Chair of Pathological Anatomy at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

in 1849. After five years, Charité reinstated him to its new Institute for Pathology. He co-founded the political party

Deutsche Fortschrittspartei The German Progress Party (german: Deutsche Fortschrittspartei, DFP) was the first modern political party in Germany, founded by liberal members of the Prussian House of Representatives () in 1861 in opposition to Minister President Otto von Bism ...

, and was elected to the

Prussian House of Representatives The Prussian House of Representatives (german: Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus) was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of ...

and won a seat in the Reichstag. His opposition to

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

's financial policy resulted in duel challenge by the latter. However, Virchow supported Bismarck in his anti-Catholic campaigns, which he named ''

Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...

'' ("culture struggle"). A prolific writer, he produced more than 2000 scientific writings. ''Cellular Pathology'' (1858), regarded as the root of modern pathology, introduced the third dictum in

cell theory In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that living organisms are made up of Cell (biology), cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cell ...

: ''Omnis cellula e cellula'' ("All cells come from cells"). He was a co-founder of ''Physikalisch-Medizinische Gesellschaft'' in 1849 and ''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pathologie'' in 1897. He founded journals such as ''Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin'' (with

Benno Reinhardt Benno Ernst Heinrich Reinhardt (14 May 1819 – 11 March 1852) was a German physician who worked as prosector at Charité hospital in Berlin. He is known for his contributions to pathology, especially as co-founder of the journal ''Virchows Archiv' ...

in 1847, later renamed ''

Virchows Archiv ''Virchows Archiv: European Journal of Pathology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal of all aspects of pathology, especially human pathology. It is published by Springer Science+Business Media and an official publication of the European ...

''), and ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'' (''Journal of Ethnology''). The latter is published by German Anthropological Association and the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, the societies which he also founded. Virchow was the first to describe and name diseases such as

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

chordoma Chordoma is a rare slow-growing neoplasm thought to arise from cellular remnants of the notochord. The evidence for this is the location of the tumors (along the neuraxis), the similar immunohistochemical staining patterns, and the demonstration ...

ochronosis Ochronosis is a syndrome caused by the accumulation of homogentisic acid in connective tissues. The condition was named after the yellowish (ocher-like) discoloration of the tissue seen on microscopic examination. Macroscopically, though, the af ...

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule ( fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...

, and

thrombosis Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thro ...

. He coined biological terms such as "

neuroglia Glia, also called glial cells (gliocytes) or neuroglia, are non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. They maintain homeostasis, form mye ...

", "

agenesis In medicine, agenesis () refers to the failure of an organ to develop during embryonic growth and development due to the absence of primordial tissue. Many forms of agenesis are referred to by individual names, depending on the organ affected: * A ...

", "

parenchyma Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms. Etymology The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...

", "

osteoid In histology, osteoid is the unmineralized, organic portion of the bone matrix that forms prior to the maturation of bone tissue. Osteoblasts begin the process of forming bone tissue by secreting the osteoid as several specific proteins. When t ...

", "

amyloid degeneration Amyloidosis is a group of diseases in which abnormal proteins, known as amyloid fibrils, build up in tissue. There are several non-specific and vague signs and symptoms associated with amyloidosis. These include fatigue, peripheral edema, weight ...

", and "

spina bifida Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, me ...

"; terms such as

Virchow's triad Virchow's triad or the triad of Virchow () describes the three broad categories of factors that are thought to contribute to thrombosis. *Hypercoagulability *Hemodynamic changes (stasis, turbulence) *Endothelial injury/dysfunction It is named a ...

are named after him. His description of the life cycle of a roundworm ''

Trichinella spiralis ''Trichinella spiralis'' is a viviparous nematode parasite, occurring in rodents, pigs, bears, hyenas and humans, and is responsible for the disease trichinosis. It is sometimes referred to as the "pork worm" due to it being typically encounte ...

'' influenced the practice of meat inspection. He developed the first systematic method of

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

, and introduced hair analysis in forensic investigation. Opposing the germ theory of diseases, he rejected

Ignaz Semmelweis Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that t ...

's idea of disinfecting. He was critical of what he described as "Nordic mysticism" regarding the

Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...

. As an anti-Darwinist, he called

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

an "ignoramus" and his own student

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...

a "fool". He described the original specimen of Neanderthal man as nothing but that of a deformed human.

Early life

Virchow was born in Schievelbein, in eastern

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

(now

Świdwin Świdwin (german: Schivelbein; csb, Skwilbëno) is a town in West Pomeranian Voivodeship of northwestern Poland. It is the capital of Świdwin County established 1999, previously having been in Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998), and the adminis ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

). He was the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow (1785–1865) and Johanna Maria ''née'' Hesse (1785–1857). His father was a farmer and the city treasurer. Academically brilliant, he always topped his classes and was fluent in German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian and Dutch. He progressed to the gymnasium in Köslin (now

Koszalin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-stat ...

) in 1835 with the goal of becoming a pastor. He graduated in 1839 with a thesis titled ''A Life Full of Work and Toil is not a Burden but a Benediction''. However, he chose medicine mainly because he considered his voice too weak for preaching.

Scientific career

In 1840, he received a military fellowship, a scholarship for gifted children from poor families to become army surgeons, to study medicine at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (now

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

). He was most influenced by

, his doctoral advisor. Virchow defended his doctoral thesis titled ''De rheumate praesertim corneae'' (corneal manifestations of rheumatic disease) on 21 October 1843. Immediately on graduation, he became subordinate physician to Müller. But shortly after, he joined the Charité Hospital in Berlin for internship. In 1844, he was appointed as medical assistant to the prosector (pathologist) Robert Froriep, from whom he learned

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

which interested him in pathology. Froriep was also the editor of an abstract journal that specialised in foreign work, which inspired Virchow for scientific ideas of France and England. Virchow published his first scientific paper in 1845, giving the earliest known pathological descriptions of

. He passed the medical licensure examination in 1846 and immediately succeeded Froriep as hospital prosector at the Charité. In 1847, he was appointed to his first academic position with the rank of ''

privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

''. Because his articles did not receive favourable attention from German editors, he founded ''Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin'' (now known as ''Virchows Archiv'') with a colleague Benno Reinhardt in 1847. He edited alone after Reinhardt's death in 1852 till his own. This journal published critical articles based on the criterion that no papers would be published that contained outdated, untested, dogmatic or speculative ideas. Unlike his German peers, Virchow had great faith in clinical observation,

animal experimentation Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This ...

(to determine causes of diseases and the effects of drugs) and pathological anatomy, particularly at the microscopic level, as the basic principles of investigation in medical sciences. He went further and stated that the cell was the basic unit of the body that had to be studied to understand disease. Although the term 'cell' had been coined in 1665 during the English scientist

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...

's early application of the microscope to biology, the building blocks of life were still considered to be the 21 tissues of Bichat, a concept described by the French physician

Xavier Bichat Marie François Xavier Bichat (; ; 14 November 1771 – 22 July 1802) was a French anatomist and pathologist, known as the father of modern histology. Although he worked without a microscope, Bichat distinguished 21 types of elementary tissues ...

. The Prussian government employed Virchow to study the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia in 1847–1848. It was from this medical campaign that he developed his ideas on social medicine and politics after seeing the victims and their poverty. Even though he was not particularly successful in combating the epidemic, his 190-paged ''Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia'' in 1848 became a turning point in politics and public health in Germany. He returned to Berlin on 10 March 1848, and only eight days later, a revolution broke out against the government in which he played an active part. To fight political injustice he helped found ''Die Medizinische Reform (Medical Reform)'', a weekly newspaper for promoting social medicine, in July of that year. The newspaper ran under the banners "medicine is a social science" and "the physician is the natural attorney of the poor". Political pressures forced him to terminate the publication in June 1849, and he was expelled from his official position. In November 1848, he was given an academic appointment and left Berlin for the University of Würzburg to hold Germany's first chair of pathological anatomy. During his six-year period there, he concentrated on his scientific work, including detailed studies of venous thrombosis and cellular theory. His first major work there was a six-volume ''Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie (Handbook on Special Pathology and Therapeutics)'' published in 1854. In 1856, he returned to Berlin to become the newly created Chair for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, as well as Director of the newly built Institute for Pathology on the premises of the Charité. He held the latter post for the next 20 years.

Cell biology

Virchow is credited with several key discoveries. His most widely known scientific contribution is his

, which built on the work of

Theodor Schwann Theodor Schwann (; 7 December 181011 January 1882) was a German physician and physiologist. His most significant contribution to biology is considered to be the extension of cell theory to animals. Other contributions include the discovery of ...

. He was one of the first to accept the work of

Robert Remak Robert Remak (26 July 1815 – 29 August 1865) was a Jewish Polish-German embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist, born in Posen, Prussia, who discovered that the origin of cells was by the division of pre-existing cells. as well as several ...

, who showed that the origin of cells was the division of pre-existing cells. He did not initially accept the evidence for cell division and believed that it occurs only in certain types of cells. When it dawned on him in 1855 that Remak might be right, he published Remak's work as his own, causing a falling-out between the two. Virchow was particularly influenced in cellular theory by the work of

John Goodsir John Goodsir (20 March 1814 – 6 March 1867) was a Scottish anatomist and a pioneer in the formulation of cell theory. Early life Goodsir was born on 20 March 1814 in Anstruther, Fife, the son of Elizabeth Dunbar Taylor and John Goods ...

of Edinburgh, whom he described as "one of the earliest and most acute observers of cell-life both physiological and pathological". Virchow dedicated his ''magnum opus'' ''Die Cellularpathologie'' to Goodsir. Virchow's cellular theory was encapsulated in the epigram ''Omnis cellula e cellula'' ("all cells (come) from cells"), which he published in 1855. (The

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

was actually coined by

François-Vincent Raspail François-Vincent Raspail, L.L.D., M.D. (25 January 1794 – 7 January 1878) was a French chemist, naturalist, physician, physiologist, attorney, and socialist politician. Biography Raspail was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. A member of the ...

, but popularized by Virchow.) It is a rejection of the concept of spontaneous generation, which held that organisms could arise from nonliving matter. For example, maggots were believed to appear spontaneously in decaying meat;

Francesco Redi Francesco Redi (18 February 1626 – 1 March 1697) was an Italian physician, naturalist, biologist, and poet. He is referred to as the "founder of experimental biology", and as the "father of modern parasitology". He was the first person to cha ...

carried out experiments that disproved this notion and coined the maxim '' Omne vivum ex ovo'' ("Every living thing comes from a living thing" — literally "from an egg"); Virchow (and his predecessors) extended this to state that the only source for a living cell was another living cell.

Cancer

In 1845, Virchow and

John Hughes Bennett John Hughes Bennett PRCPE FRSE (31 August 1812 – 25 September 1875) was an English physician, physiologist and pathologist. His main contribution to medicine has been the first description of leukemia as a blood disorder (1845). The first pe ...

independently observed abnormal increases in white blood cells in some patients. Virchow correctly identified the condition as a blood disease, and named it ''leukämie'' in 1847 (later anglicised to

). In 1857, he was the first to describe a type of

tumour A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

called

that originated from the clivus (at the base of the skull).

Theory of cancer origin

Virchow was the first to correctly link the origin of cancers from otherwise normal cells. (His teacher Müller had proposed that cancers originated from cells, but from special cells, which he called blastema.) In 1855, he suggested that cancers arise from the activation of dormant cells (perhaps similar to cells now known as

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

s) present in mature tissue. Virchow believed that cancer is caused by severe irritation in the tissues, and his theory came to be known as chronic irritation theory. He thought, rather wrongly, that the irritation spread in the form of liquid so that cancer rapidly increases. His theory was largely ignored, as he was proved wrong that it was not by liquid, but by

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

of the already cancerous cells that cancers spread. (Metastasis was first described by

Karl Thiersch Karl Thiersch, also spelled Carl Thiersch (20 April 1822 – 28 April 1895), was a German surgeon born in Munich. His father was educationist Friedrich Thiersch, his father-in-law was renowned chemist Justus von Liebig. One brother, Ludwig, wa ...

in the 1860s.) He made a crucial observation that certain cancers (

carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesodermal ...

in the modern sense) were inherently associated with white blood cells (which are now called

macrophages Macrophages (abbreviated as M φ, MΦ or MP) ( el, large eaters, from Greek ''μακρός'' (') = large, ''φαγεῖν'' (') = to eat) are a type of white blood cell of the immune system that engulfs and digests pathogens, such as cancer ce ...

) that produced irritation (

inflammation Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...

). It was only towards the end of the 20th century that Virchow's theory was taken seriously. It was realised that specific cancers (including those of

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

, lung, prostate, bladder, pancreatic, cervical, esophageal,

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

, and head and neck) are indeed strongly associated with long-term inflammation. In addition it became clear that prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as

aspirin Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat inc ...

, reduced cancer risk. Experiments also show that drugs that block inflammation simultaneously inhibit tumour formation and development.

The Kaiser's case

Virchow was one of the leading physicians to

Kaiser ''Kaiser'' is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly ap ...

Frederick III, who suffered from

cancer of the larynx Laryngeal cancers are mostly squamous-cell carcinomas, reflecting their origin from the epithelium of the larynx. Cancer can develop in any part of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumour. For the purposes of staging ...

. While other physicians such as

Ernst von Bergmann Ernst Gustav Benjamin von Bergmann (16 December 1836 – 25 March 1907) was a Baltic German surgeon. He was the first physician to introduce heat sterilisation of surgical instruments and is known as a pioneer of aseptic surgery. Biography B ...

suggested surgical removal of the entire larynx, Virchow was opposed to it because no successful operation of this kind had ever been done. The British surgeon

Morell Mackenzie Sir Morell Mackenzie (7 July 1837 – 3 February 1892) was a British physician, one of the pioneers of laryngology in the United Kingdom. Biography Morell Mackenzie was born at Leytonstone, Essex, England on 7 July 1837. He was the eldest of ni ...

performed a

biopsy A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a diseas ...

of the Kaiser in 1887 and sent it to Virchow, who identified it as "pachydermia verrucosa laryngis". Virchow affirmed that the tissues were not cancerous, even after several biopsy tests. The Kaiser died on 15 June 1888. The next day a post-mortem examination was performed by Virchow and his assistant. They found that the larynx was extensively damaged by ulceration, and microscopic examination confirmed epidermal carcinoma. ''Die Krankheit Kaiser Friedrich des Dritten (The Medical Report of Kaiser Frederick III)'' was published on 11 July under the lead authorship of Bergmann. But Virchow and Mackenzie were omitted, and they were particularly criticised for all their works. The arguments between them turned into a century-long controversy, resulting in Virchow being accused of misdiagnosis and malpractice. But reassessment of the diagnostic history revealed that Virchow was right in his findings and decisions. It is now believed that the Kaiser had hybrid verrucous carcinoma, a very rare form of

verrucous carcinoma Verrucous carcinoma (VC) is an uncommon variant of squamous cell carcinoma. This form of cancer is often seen in those who chew tobacco or use snuff orally, so much so that it is sometimes referred to as "Snuff dipper's cancer". Signs and symp ...

, and that Virchow had no way of correctly identifying it. (The cancer type was correctly identified only in 1948 by

Lauren Ackerman Lauren Vedder Ackerman (March 12, 1905 – July 27, 1993) was an American physician and pathologist, who championed the subspecialty of surgical pathology in the mid-20th century. Early life Ackerman was born in March 1905 in Auburn, New York, ...

Anatomy

It was discovered approximately simultaneously by Virchow and

Charles Emile Troisier Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

that an enlarged left supraclavicular node is one of the earliest signs of gastrointestinal malignancy, commonly of the stomach, or less commonly, lung cancer. This sign has become known as

Virchow's node Supraclavicular lymph nodes are lymph nodes found above the clavicle, that can be felt in the supraclavicular fossa. The supraclavicular lymph nodes on the left side are called Virchow's nodes.Troisier's sign Supraclavicular lymph nodes are lymph nodes found above the clavicle, that can be felt in the supraclavicular fossa. The supraclavicular lymph nodes on the left side are called Virchow's nodes.thromboembolism Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thro ...

(a condition of blood clotting in the blood vessels), coining the terms

and

. He noted that blood clots in the pulmonary artery originate first from venous thrombi, stating in 1859:

e detachment of larger or smaller fragments from the end of the softening thrombus which are carried along by the current of blood and driven into remote vessels. This gives rise to the very frequent process on which I have bestowed the name of Embolia."

Having made these initial discoveries based on autopsies, he proceeded to put forward a scientific hypothesis; that pulmonary thrombi are transported from the veins of the leg and that the blood has the ability to carry such an object. He then proceeded to prove this hypothesis by well-designed experiments, repeated numerous times to consolidate evidence, and with meticulously detailed methodology. This work rebutted a claim made by the eminent French pathologist

Jean Cruveilhier Jean Cruveilhier (; 9 February 1791 – 7 March 1874) was a French anatomist and pathologist. Academic career Cruveilhier was born in Limoges, France. As a student in Limoges, he planned to enter the priesthood. He later developed an inte ...

that

phlebitis Phlebitis (or Venitis) is inflammation of a vein, usually in the legs. It most commonly occurs in superficial veins. Phlebitis often occurs in conjunction with thrombosis and is then called thrombophlebitis or superficial thrombophlebitis. Unlike ...

led to clot development and that thus coagulation was the main consequence of venous inflammation. This was a view held by many before Virchow's work. Related to this research, Virchow described the factors contributing to venous thrombosis,

Pathology

Virchow founded the medical fields of

cellular pathology Cytopathology (from Greek , ''kytos'', "a hollow"; , ''pathos'', "fate, harm"; and , ''-logia'') is a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level. The discipline was founded by George Nicolas Papanicolaou in 19 ...

and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His most important work in the field was ''Cellular Pathology'' (''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre'') published in 1858, as a collection of his lectures. This is regarded as the basis of modern medical science, and the "greatest advance which scientific medicine had made since its beginning." His very innovative work may be viewed as between that of

Giovanni Battista Morgagni Giovanni Battista Morgagni (25 February 1682 – 6 December 1771) was an Italian anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Prof ...

, whose work Virchow studied, and that of

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...

, who studied at the Charité while Virchow was developing microscopic pathology there. One of Virchow's major contributions to German medical education was to encourage the use of microscopes by medical students, and he was known for constantly urging his students to "think microscopically". He was the first to establish a link between infectious diseases between humans and animals, for which he coined the term "

zoonoses A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that has jumped from a non-human (usually a vertebrate) to a human. ...

". He also introduced scientific terms such as "

chromatin Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryotic cells. The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures. This prevents the strands from becoming tangled and also plays important roles in r ...

", "

", and "

". His concepts on pathology directly opposed humourism, an ancient medical dogma that diseases were due to imbalanced body fluids, hypothetically called humours, that still pervaded. Virchow was a great influence on Swedish pathologist

Axel Key Ernst Axel Henrik Key (25 October 1832 – 27 December 1901) was a Swedish pathologist, member of parliament, writer and rector at Karolinska Institute. Biography Upbringing and education Key was born in 1832 in Johannisberg in Flisby sock ...

, who worked as his assistant during Key's doctoral studies in Berlin.

Parasitology

Virchow worked out the life cycle of a roundworm ''

''. Virchow noticed a mass of circular white flecks in the muscle of dog and human cadavers, similar to those described by

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

in 1835. He confirmed by microscopic observation that the white particles were indeed the larvae of roundworms, curled up in the muscle tissue. Rudolph Leukart found that these tiny worms could develop into adult roundworms in the intestine of a dog. He correctly asserted that these worms could also cause human

helminthiasis Helminthiasis, also known as worm infection, is any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths. There are numerous species of these parasites, which are br ...

. Virchow further demonstrated that if the infected meat is first heated to 137 °F for 10 minutes, the worms could not infect dogs or humans. He established that human roundworm infection occurs via contaminated pork. This directly led to the establishment of meat inspection, which was first adopted in Berlin.

Autopsy

Virchow was the first to develop a systematic method of autopsy, based on his knowledge of cellular pathology. The modern autopsy still constitutes his techniques. His first significant autopsy was on a 50-year-old woman in 1845. He found an unusual number of white blood cells, and gave a detailed description in 1847 and named the condition as ''leukämie''. One on his autopsies in 1857 was the first description of vertebral disc rupture. His autopsy on a baby in 1856 was the first description of congenital pulmonary

lymphangiectasia Lymphangiectasia, also known as "lymphangiectasis", is a pathologic dilation of lymph vessels.McGavin/ Zachary (2007), Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease When it occurs in the intestines of dogs, and more rarely humans, it causes a disease know ...

(the name given by K. M. Laurence a century later), a rare and fatal disease of the lung. From his experience of post-mortem examinations of cadavers, he published his method in a small book in 1876. His book was the first to describe the techniques of autopsy specifically to examine abnormalities in organs, and retain important tissues for further examination and demonstration. Unlike any other earlier practitioner, he practiced complete surgery of all body parts with body organs dissected one by one. This has become the standard method.

Ochronosis

Virchow discovered the clinical syndrome which he called

, a metabolic disorder in which a patient accumulates

homogentisic acid Homogentisic acid (2,5-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid) is a phenolic acid usually found in ''Arbutus unedo'' (strawberry-tree) honey. It is also present in the bacterial plant pathogen ''Xanthomonas campestris'' pv. ''phaseoli'' as well as in the ye ...

in connective tissues and which can be identified by discolouration seen under the microscope. He found the unusual symptom in an autopsy of the corpse of a 67-year-old man on 8 May 1884. This was the first time this abnormal disease affecting cartilage and connective tissue was observed and characterised. His description and coining of the name appeared in the October 1866 issue of ''Virchows Archiv''.

Forensic work

Virchow was the first to analyse hair in criminal investigation, and made the first forensic report on it in 1861. He was called as an expert witness in a murder case, and he used hair samples collected from the victim. He became the first to recognise the limitation of hair as evidence. He found that hairs can be different in an individual, that individual hair has characteristic features, and that hairs from different individuals can be strikingly similar. He concluded that evidence based on hair analysis is inconclusive. His testimony runs:

Anthropology and prehistory biology

Virchow developed an interest in anthropology in 1865, when he discovered pile dwellings in northern Germany. In 1869, he co-founded the German Anthropological Association. In 1870 he founded the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistory (''Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte'') which was very influential in coordinating and intensifying German archaeological research. Until his death, Virchow was several times (at least fifteen times) its president, often taking turns with his former student

Adolf Bastian Adolf Philipp Wilhelm Bastian (26 June 18262 February 1905) was a 19th-century polymath best remembered for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. Modern psychology owes him a great ...

. As president, Virchow frequently contributed to and co-edited the society's main journal ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'' (''Journal of Ethnology''), which Adolf Bastian, together with another student of Virchow, Robert Hartman, had founded in 1869. In 1870, he led a major excavation of the hill forts in Pomerania. He also excavated wall mounds in Wö llstein in 1875 with

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...

, whose paper he edited on the subject. For his contributions in German archaeology, the

Rudolf Virchow lecture The Rudolf Virchow lecture was an annual public lecture delivered by an eminent researcher in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology in Neuwied (Germany). The lecture was held in honour of the German physician, archaeologist and politician Rudolf V ...

is held annually in his honour. He made field trips to

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, the Caucasus, Egypt, Nubia, and other places, sometimes in the company of

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeologi ...

. His 1879 journey to the site of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

is described in ''Beiträge zur Landeskunde in Troas'' ("Contributions to the knowledge of the landscape in Troy", 1879) and ''Alttrojanische Gräber und Schädel'' ("Old Trojan graves and skulls", 1882).

Anti-Darwinism

Virchow was an opponent of

Darwin's theory of evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

, and particularly skeptical of the emergent thesis of

human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...

. He did not reject evolutionary theory as a whole, and viewed the theory of natural selection as "an immeasurable advance" but that still has no "actual proof." On 22 September 1877, he delivered a public address entitled ''"The Freedom of Science in the Modern State"'' before the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians in Munich. There he spoke against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools, arguing that it was as yet an unproven hypothesis that lacked empirical foundations and that, therefore, its teaching would negatively affect scientific studies.

, who had been Virchow's student, later reported that his former professor said that "it is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes...not caring in the least that now almost all experts of good judgment hold the opposite conviction." Virchow became one of the leading opponents on the debate over the authenticity of

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...

, discovered in 1856, as distinct species and ancestral to modern humans. He himself examined the original fossil in 1872, and presented his observations before the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte. He stated that the Neanderthal had not been a primitive form of human, but an abnormal human being, who, judging by the shape of his skull, had been injured and deformed, and considering the unusual shape of his bones, had been arthritic, rickety, and feeble. With such an authority, the fossil was rejected as new species. With this reasoning, Virchow "judged Darwin an ignoramus and Haeckel a fool and was loud and frequent in the publication of these judgments," and declared that "it is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes." The Neanderthals were later accepted as distinct species of humans, ''Homo neanderthalensis''. On 22 September 1877, at the Fiftieth Conference of the German Association of Naturalists and Physician held in Munich, Haeckel pleaded for introducing evolution in the public school curricula, and tried to dissociate Darwinism from social Darwinism. His campaign was because of Herman Müller, a school teacher who was banned because of his teaching a year earlier on the inanimate origin of life from carbon. This resulted in prolonged public debate with Virchow. A few days later Virchow responded that Darwinism was only a hypothesis, and morally dangerous to students. This severe criticism of Darwinism was immediately taken up by the London ''

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...

'', from which further debates erupted among English scholars. Haeckel wrote his arguments in the October issue of ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' titled "The Present Position of Evolution Theory", to which Virchow responded in the next issue with an article "The Liberty of Science in the Modern State". Virchow stated that teaching of evolution was "contrary to the conscience of the natural scientists, who reckons only with facts." The debate led Haeckel to write a full book ''Freedom in Science and Teaching'' in 1879. That year the issue was discussed in the

and the verdict was in favour of Virchow. In 1882 the Prussian education policy officially excluded natural history in schools. Years later, the noted German physician

Carl Ludwig Schleich Carl Ludwig Schleich (19 July 1859 – 7 March 1922) was a German surgeon and writer. He is best known for his contribution to clinical anesthesia. In addition, he was also a philosopher, poet and painter. Biography Family Schelich's ancest ...

would recall a conversation he held with Virchow, who was a close friend of his: "...On to the subject of

Darwinism Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...

. 'I don't believe in all this,' Virchow told me. 'if I lie on my sofa and blow the possibilities away from me, as another man may blow the smoke of his cigar, I can, of course, sympathize with such dreams. But they don't stand the test of knowledge. Haeckel is a fool. That will be apparent one day. As far as that goes, if anything like transmutation did occur it could only happen in the course of pathological degeneration!'" Virchow's ultimate opinion about evolution was reported a year before he died; in his own words: Virchow's anti-evolutionism, like that of

Albert von Kölliker Albert von Kölliker (born Rudolf Albert Kölliker'';'' 6 July 18172 November 1905) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, and histologist. Biography Albert Kölliker was born in Zurich, Switzerland. His early education was carried on in Zurich, ...

and Thomas Brown, did not come from religion, since he was not a believer.

Anti-racism

Virchow believed that Haeckel's monist propagation of

social Darwinism Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

was in its nature politically dangerous and anti-democratic, and he also criticized it because he saw it as related to the emergent nationalist movement in Germany, ideas about cultural superiority, and militarism. In 1885, he launched a study of

craniometry Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is disti ...

, which gave results contradictory to contemporary

scientific racist Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies can be more e ...

theories on the "Aryan race", leading him to denounce the " Nordic mysticism" at the 1885 Anthropology Congress in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

. Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated at the same congress that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races", further declaring that the "results of craniology" led to a "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race" over others. He analysed the hair, skin, and eye colour of 6,758,827 schoolchildren to identify the Jews and Aryans. His findings, published in 1886 and concluding that there could be neither a Jewish nor a German race, were regarded as a blow to

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and the existence of an "Aryan race".

Anti-germ theory of diseases

Virchow did not believe in the

germ theory of diseases The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade h ...

, as advocated by

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

and

. He proposed that diseases came from abnormal activities inside the cells, not from outside pathogens. He believed that epidemics were social in origin, and the way to combat epidemics was political, not medical. He regarded germ theory as a hindrance to prevention and cure. He considered social factors such as poverty major causes of disease. He even attacked Koch's and

' policy of handwashing as an antiseptic practice, who said of him: "Explorers of nature recognize no bugbears other than individuals who speculate." He postulated that germs were only using infected organs as habitats, but were not the cause, and stated, "If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat: diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of diseased tissue".

Politics and social medicine

More than a laboratory physician, Virchow was an impassioned advocate for social and political reform. His ideology involved social inequality as the cause of diseases that requires political actions, stating:

Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale. Medicine, as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their actual solution... Science for its own sake usually means nothing more than science for the sake of the people who happen to be pursuing it. Knowledge which is unable to support action is not genuine – and how unsure is activity without understanding... If medicine is to fulfill her great task, then she must enter the political and social life... The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.

Virchow actively worked for social change to fight poverty and diseases. His methods involved pathological observations and statistical analyses. He called this new field of social medicine a "

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

". His most important influences could be noted in Latin America, where his disciples introduced his social medicine. For example, his student

Max Westenhöfer Max Westenhöfer (February 9, 1871 – September 25, 1957) was a German pathologist and biologist who contributed to the development of the anatomic pathology and the reform of public health in Chile. Education Maximilian Joseph Johann Westenhö ...

became Director of Pathology at the medical school of the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, becoming the most influential advocate. One of Westenhöfer's students,

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, through social and political activities based on Virchow's doctrine, became the 29th

President of Chile The president of Chile ( es, Presidente de Chile), officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile ( es, Presidente de la República de Chile), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is re ...

(1970–1973). Virchow made himself known as a pronounced pro-democracy progressive in the year of revolutions in Germany (1848). His political views are evident in his ''Report on the Typhus Outbreak of Upper Silesia'', where he states that the outbreak could not be solved by treating individual patients with drugs or with minor changes in food, housing, or clothing laws, but only through radical action to promote the advancement of an entire population, which could be achieved only by "full and unlimited democracy" and "education, freedom and prosperity". These radical statements and his minor part in the revolution caused the government to remove him from his position in 1849, although within a year he was reinstated as prosector "on probation".

Prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...

was a secondary position in the hospital. This secondary position in Berlin convinced him to accept the chair of pathological anatomy at the medical school in the provincial town of Würzburg, where he continued his scientific research. Six years later, he had attained fame in scientific and medical circles, and was reinstated at Charité Hospital. In 1859, he became a member of the Municipal Council of Berlin and began his career as a civic reformer. Elected to the Prussian Diet in 1862, he became leader of the Radical or Progressive party; and from 1880 to 1893, he was a member of the Reichstag. He worked to improve healthcare conditions for Berlin citizens, especially by working towards modern water and sewer systems. Virchow is credited as a founder of anthropology and of social medicine, frequently focusing on the fact that disease is never purely biological, but often socially derived or spread.

The duel challenge by Bismarck

As a co-founder and member of the liberal party ''Deutsche Fortschrittspartei'', he was a leading political antagonist of Bismarck. He was opposed to Bismarck's excessive military budget, which angered Bismarck sufficiently that he challenged Virchow to a duel in 1865. Virchow declined because he considered dueling an uncivilized way to solve a conflict. Various English-language sources purport a different version of events, the so-called "Sausage Duel". It has Virchow, being the one challenged and therefore entitled to choose the weapons, selecting two pork sausages, one loaded with ''

Trichinella ''Trichinella'' is the genus of parasitic roundworms of the phylum Nematoda that cause trichinosis (also known as trichinellosis). Members of this genus are often called trichinella or trichina worms. A characteristic of Nematoda is the one-way ...

'' larvae, the other safe; Bismarck declined. However, there are no German-language documents confirming this version.

''Kulturkampf''

Virchow supported Bismarck in an attempt to reduce the political and social influence of the Catholic Church, between 1871 and 1887."This anti-Catholic crusade was also taken up by the Progressives, especially Rudolf Virchow, though Richter himself was tepid in his occasional support.
Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th century
by Ralph Raico He remarked that the movement was acquiring "the character of a great struggle in the interest of humanity". He called it ''Kulturkampf'' ("culture struggle") during the discussion of

Paul Ludwig Falk Paul Ludwig Adalbert Falk (10 August 18277 July 1900) was a German politician. Falk was born in Metschkau (Mieczków), Silesia. In 1847, he entered the Prussian state service, and in 1853, he became public prosecutor at Lyck (now Ełk). In 1858 ...

May Laws Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) were proposed by the minister of internal affairs Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev and enacted on 15 May (3 May O.S.), 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Originally, regulations of ...

(''Maigesetze'').A leading German school teacher, Rudolf Virchow, characterized Bismarck's struggle with the Catholic Church as a Kulturkampf a fight for culture by which Virchow meant a fight for liberal, rational principles against the dead weight of medieval traditionalism, obscurantism, and authoritarianism." fro
The Triumph of Civilization
by Norman D. Livergood and "Kulturkampf \Kul*tur"kampf'\, n. ., fr. kultur, cultur, culture + kampf fight.(Ger. Hist.) Lit., culture war; – a name, originating with Virchow (1821–1902), given to a struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the German government
Kulturkampf
in freedict.co.uk Virchow was respected in Masonic circles,"Rizal's Berlin associates, or perhaps the word "patrons" would give their relation better, were men as esteemed in Masonry as they were eminent in the scientific world—Virchow, for example." in

JOSE RIZAL Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galile ...

AS A MASON by AUSTIN CRAIG, The Builder Magazine
August 1916 – Volume II – Number 8
/ref> and according to one source"It was a heady atmosphere for the young Brother, and Masons in Germany, Dr. Rudolf Virchow and Dr.

Fedor Jagor Andreas Fedor Jagor (30 November 1816 – 11 February 1900) was a German ethnologist, naturalist and explorer who traveled throughout Asia in the second half of the 19th century collecting for Berlin museums. "Fedor Jagor". German Wikipedia. Retr ...

, were instrumental in his becoming a member of the Berlin Ethnological and Anthropological Societies." Fro
Dimasalang: The Masonic Life Of Dr. Jose P. Rizal By Reynold S. Fajardo, 33°
by Fred Lamar Pearson, Scottish Rite Journal, October 1998 may have been a

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, though no official record of this has been found.

Personal life

On 24 August 1850 in Berlin, Virchow married Ferdinande Rosalie Mayer (29 February 183221 February 1913), a liberal's daughter. They had three sons and three daughters: * Karl Virchow (1 August 185121 September 1912), a chemist * Hans Virchow ( de) (10 September 18527 April 1940), an anatomist * Adele Virchow (1 October 185518 May 1955), the wife of Rudolf Henning, a professor of

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

* Ernst Virchow (24 January 18585 April 1942) * Marie Virchow (29 June 186623 October 1951), the wife of

Carl Rabl Carl Rabl (2 May 1853 in Wels, Austria – 24 December 1917 in Leipzig, Germany Carl Rabl
at

Virchow broke his thigh bone on 4 January 1902, jumping off a running streetcar while exiting the electric tramway. Although he anticipated full recovery, the fractured femur never healed, and restricted his physical activity. His health gradually deteriorated and he died of heart failure after eight months, on 5 September 1902, in Berlin. A state funeral was held on 9 September in the Assembly Room of the Magistracy in the

Berlin Town Hall The Rotes Rathaus (, ''Red City Hall'') is the town hall of Berlin, located in the Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the state of Berlin. Th ...

, which was decorated with laurels, palms and flowers. He was buried in the

Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof (Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof or Old St. Matthew's Churchyard) is a cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany. It was established in 1856 by the Protestant parish of St. Matthew. It is known for its interment of the ...

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelh ...

, Berlin. His tomb was shared by his wife on 21 February 1913.

Collections and Foundations

Rudolf Virchow was also a collector. Several museums in Berlin emerged from Virchow's collections: the Märkisches Museum, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Medical History. In addition, Virchow's collection of anatomical specimens from numerous European and non-European populations, which still exists today, deserves special mention. The collection is owned by the Berlin Society for Anthropology and Prehistory. The collection hit the international headlines in 2020 when the two journalists Markus Grill and David Bruser, in cooperation with the archivist

Nils Seethaler Nils Seethaler (born August 18, 1981, in Berlin) is a German cultural anthropologist. He researches historical collections of ethnological objects and human remains. Personal life Nils Seethaler was born in Berlin-Lichterfelde and spent his yout ...

, succeeded in identifying four skulls of indigenous Canadians that were thought to be lost and which came into Virchow's possession through the mediation of the Canadian doctor

William Osler Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first Residency (medicine), residency program for spec ...

in the late 19th century.

Honours and legacy

* In June 1859, Virchow was elected to Berlin Chamber of Representatives. * In 1860, he was elected official Member of the Königliche Wissenschaftliche Deputation für das Medizinalwesen (Royal Scientific Board for Medical Affairs). * In 1861, he was elected foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. * In 1862, he was elected as an international Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. * In March 1862, he was elected to the

. * In 1873, he was elected to the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

. He declined to be ennobled as "von Virchow," he was nonetheless designated Geheimrat ("privy councillor") in 1894. * In 1880, he was elected member of the

Reichstag of the German Empire The Reichstag () of the German Empire was Germany's lower house of parliament from 1871 to 1918. Within the governmental structure of the Reich, it represented the national and democratic element alongside the federalism of the Bundesrat and the ...

. * In 1881, Rudolf-Virchow-Foundation was established on the occasion of his 60th birthday. * In 1892, he was appointed Rector of the Berlin University. * In 1892, he was awarded the British

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...

. * The Rudolf Virchow Center, a biomedical research center in the University of Würzburg was established in January 2002. *

Rudolf Virchow Award The Rudolf Virchow Awards are annual American awards in anthropology. About the Award The Rudolf Virchow Awards are given by the Critical Anthropology for Global Health Study Group, a special interest group of Society for Medical Anthropology. Th ...

is given by the

Society for Medical Anthropology The Organization of Medical Anthropology was formed in 1967 and first met on April 27, 1968, at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), during which the Medical Anthropology Newsletter was conceived and first publish ...

for research achievements in medical anthropology. *

, an annual public lecture, is organised by the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, for eminent scientists in the field of palaeolithic archaeology. * Rudolf Virchow Medical Society is based in New York, and offers Rudolf Virchow Medal. Berlin-Wedding Virchow-Klinikum 06 Herzzentrum

Berlin-Wedding Virchow-Klinikum 06 Herzzentrum

* Campus Virchow Klinikum (CVK) is the name of a

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

hospital in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. * The Rudolf Virchow Monument, a muscular limestone statue, was erected in 1910 at Karlplatz in Berlin. * Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus was built in 1915 in Berlin, jointly honouring Virchow and

Bernhard von Langenbeck Bernhard Rudolf Konrad von Langenbeck (9 November 181029 September 1887) was a German surgeon known as the developer of Langenbeck's amputation and founder of ''Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery''. Life He was born at Padingbüttel, and recei ...

. Originally a medical centre, the building is now used as conference centre of the German Surgical Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie) and the Berlin Medical Association (BMG-Berliner Medizinische Gesellschaft). * The Rudolf Virchow Study Center is instituted by the

European University Viadrina European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (german: Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)) is a university located at Frankfurt (Oder) in Brandenburg, Germany. It is also known as the University of Frankfurt (Oder). The city is on the ...

for compiling of the complete works of Virchow. * Virchow Hill in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

is named after Rudolf Virchow.

Eponymous medical terms

Works

Virchow was a prolific writer. Some of his works are:
''Mittheilungen über die in Oberschlesien herrschende Typhus-Epidemie''
(1848)
''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre.''
his chief work (1859
English translation
1860): The fourth edition of this work formed the first volume of ''Vorlesungen über Pathologie'' below. * ''Handbuch der Speciellen Pathologie und Therapie'', prepared in collaboration with others (1854–76) * ''Vorlesungen über Pathologie'' (1862–72)
''Die krankhaften Geschwülste''
(1863–67)
''Ueber den Hungertyphus''
(1868)
''Ueber einige Merkmale niederer Menschenrassen am Schädel''
(1875)

(1876) * ttps://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OCYCAAAAQAAJ ''Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im Modernen Staat''(1877)
''Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der offentlichen Medizin und der Seuchenlehre''
(1879) * ''Gegen den Antisemitismus'' (1880)

References

External links

* * *
The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes
available at

(co-authored by Virchow with Tomás Comyn, Fedor Jagor, and Chas Wilkes)
Short biography and bibliography
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. Th ...

of the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

Students and Publications of Virchow
* A biography of Virchow by th
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
that deals with his early work in Cerebrovascular Pathology * An English translation of the complete 1848 Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia is available in the February 2006 edition of the journa
Social Medicine

Some places and memories related to Rudolf Virchow

Article on Rudolf Virchow in Nautilus
retrieved on 28 January 2017. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virchow, Rudolf 1821 births 1902 deaths People from Świdwin People from the Province of Pomerania German Protestants German Progress Party politicians German Free-minded Party politicians Members of the Prussian House of Representatives Members of the 5th Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 6th Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 7th Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 8th Reichstag of the German Empire German anthropologists German radicals 19th-century German biologists German pathologists Germ theory denialists Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Physicians of the Charité Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Prehistorians Recipients of the Copley Medal University of Würzburg alumni University of Würzburg faculty Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers German paleoanthropologists

Early life

Scientific career

Cell biology

Cancer

Theory of cancer origin

The Kaiser's case

Anatomy

Pathology

Parasitology

Autopsy

Ochronosis

Forensic work

Anthropology and prehistory biology

Anti-Darwinism

Anti-racism

Anti-germ theory of diseases

Politics and social medicine

The duel challenge by Bismarck

''Kulturkampf''

Personal life

Collections and Foundations

Honours and legacy

Eponymous medical terms

Works

References

Further reading

External links