VIRCHOW, RUDOLF (1821-1902). An eminent German pathologist, anthropologist, and scholar, born at Schivelbein, Prussia. Ile was graduated in medicine in Berlin and became pro sector of anatomy in the faculty, sharing the companionship of Henle, Schwann, Brticke, Helm holtz, Du Bois-Reymond, and other scholars who were destined to become distinguished discoverers of important medical facts. Ile became, in 1847, lecturer at the University of Berlin. Soon after wards he was commissioned by the Government to investigate the cause and cure of typhus in Silesia. lie founded, at this time. the Archiv fiir patho logist-he Anatomic and Physiologic, of which he remained editor till his death, and which is celebrated the world over as "Virchow's Ar chives." The political commotions of 1848 dragged him, in common with many other vo taries of science, into the revolutionary vortex. He established a journal entitled the Medical Reformer, and also a democratic club, where he soon distinguished himself as an orator. On ac count of his political opinions, Virehow lost his post in 1849, and, though reinstated afterwards, he accepted in the same year a call to the chair of pathological anatomy in Wfirzburg. ills lectures at that university were widely popular for the novel views whirl he advanced, particularly in cellular pathology. His reputa tion grew so great that he was recalled in 1856 to Berlin, where he reoccupied the chair of pathological anatomy, and rendered it the most famous of its kind in Europe. In 1859 he became a member of the Alunicipal Coun cil of Berlin, where he distinguished himself as a reformer of the arbitrary police system then rampant. In 1862 he was chosen Deputy to the Prussia» Diet, and soon rose to the leadership of the opposition, and proved a most effective antag onist of the encroachments made in mule of the royal prerogative. Ile was one of the found ers of the Fort.s.chrittspartce ( Progressists), and both as such and as a subsequent member of the dentsch-freisinuige party he was one of the most prominent figures of the German Ileichstag from 1880 to 1893.
The first edition of his master-work, ('t llelar Intlhologic, was published in 1858, and attracted at once the attention and admiration, and later won the acceptance of the medical world, dis placing the former pathological systems and theories for all time. (See P.vrnoi,ot)Y.) His views were so clear, his theory so perfect, and his grasp of the matter so comprehensive that his fame was at once assured. His work upon tumors is of especial value, as it holds the prac tical and clinical aspects of the matter as of prime importance—a circumstance that is re markable in view of the fact that Virchow was not a practitioner of medicine. His views com bated the pessimistic theories of Rokitansky and the prevailing Vienna school of pathologists. His
work in pathology is distinctly a creation, es tablishing the biologic principle- that the laws working in disease are not different from those in operation in health, though subject to dif ferent conditions. The cellular theory was finally established in 1858. During the wars of 1866 and 1870-71, Virchow devoted himself to arranging, equipping and drilling hospital corps and ambulance squads, and directed the man agement of numbers of hospital trains, also tak ing elmrge of the immense Berlin military hos pital, as well as of the sanitary arrangements of the troops in the field. The Franco-Prussian War ended, Virchow became a member of the Sanitary Bureau of the city of Berlin, with its problem of the disposal of sewage, neither of the two little streams near it being capable of re ceiving and transporting the refuse, Under his direction immense sewage farms were estab lished after such a plan that they have kept pane in adequateness with the tremendous growth of the city, while the revenue from them is sufficient to meet and defray the expense of their mainte nance.
Virchow was also distinguished as an arch:colo gist. His advice and learning were of great vantage to Schliemann in the latter's researches in Hissarlik, and in the plains of ancient Troy. Archaeological anthropology gained much from his description of the bones found in the graves Mohan.
On October 13, 1901, upon the celebration of his eightieth anniversary. at a complimentary dinner in Berlin, a Festschrift was presented to him by a score of former students. Simultaneously testimonial dinners were given in other cities, notably New York and Chicago, in the United States, at which many physicians vied with each other in recounting the discov eries and sounding their praises of the great sci entist, teacher, physician, and legislator.
Perhaps Virehow's greatest material monu ment is the Pathological Institute and _Museum in Berlin, erected by the Government in accord ance with his desires. It contained 23.000 specimens at the time of his death, and by far surpasses all similar collections in the world.
Ile was a very voluminous writer. Among his works are Mi1thci!ungera iibcr die Typhus Epidemic ( Berlin, 1848) ; Die Celluturputhologic lib., 1858; trans., 181;0); Handbuch der speeiellen. Pathologic uud Therapie (ib., 1854 ; iiber Pdthologie (ib., 1S1;2.7['.) ; Die krankhaftrn rl,sc•hir•iilsfe 1863-67). lle also published many works on various topics, such as the gorilla, plague in its relations to public health, Goethe, Johannes. :Willer, spedal ska (a disease peculiar to the Norwegian coasts), etc. Consult his Life by Beecher (Berlin, 1891).