Virchow, Rudolf

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Rudolf (1821-1902), a noted German scientist. He was a native of Prussia. He studied medicine in Berlin. Virchow is one of the great names in the annals of science. He won distinction in more fields than any other man of his country. He began his work as an assistant in a hospital, from which he rose rapidly to a directing position, introducing reforms yet remembered. In politics he was a Social Democrat. He took part in the revolutionary movement of 1848. He entered the Berlin municipal council in 1869, the Prussian Diet in 1862, and the Reichstag in 1880. He had the courage to oppose Bismarck's policy from beginning to end. He was for four years an active member of the Berlin aldermanic council. During this time he took an active part in the sanitation of the city, insisting that the sewage be forced through pipes to a sandy plain on the Spree where it is employed in fertilizing vegetable gardens. Virchow's crowning claim to distinction rests, however, on his work in the field of pathology. Physicians give him credit for the establishment of the doctrine of cellular pathology, an epochal event in the history of medicine. While a layman is hardly competent to enunciate this doctrine, its fundamental features are of interest. To discuss this principle they may be stated. Every animal tissue is composed of cells and is derived from cells. No cell arises except as the offspring of a previously existing cell. Spontaneous generation of cells is unknown. Disease of the body is a disease of the cells. The cure of the body may be effected by curing the cells. The real question which the modern scientific physician puts to himself when called to treat a case is, What cells are out of order and what can be done for them?