Rudolf Virchow

Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow

Rudolf Virchow
Born 13 October 1821 (1821-10-13)
Schivelbein (Pomerania)
Died 5 September 1902 (1902-09-06) (age 80)
Berlin
Nationality German
Fields Medicine
Known for Cellular pathology

Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902) was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health. Referred to as "the father of modern pathology," he is considered one of the founders of social medicine.

Contents

Scientific career

From a farming family, Virchow studied medicine and chemistry in Berlin at the Prussian Military Academy on a scholarship. When he graduated in 1843 he went to serve as Robert Froriep's assistant. One of his major contributions to German medical education was to encourage the use of microscopes by medical students and was known for constantly urging his students to 'think microscopically'. The campus where this Charité hospital is located is named after him, the Campus Virchow Klinikum.

Virchow is credited with multiple important discoveries. Virchow's most widely known scientific contribution is his cell theory, which built on the work of Theodor Schwann. He is cited as the first to recognize leukemia cells. He was one of the first to accept and plagiarize[1][2] the work of Robert Remak who showed that the origins of cells was the division of preexisting cells.[3]. (Though he did not initially accept the evidence for cell division, believing that it only occurs in certain types of cells. When it dawned on him that Remak might be right, in 1855 he published Remak's work as his own which caused a falling out between the two)[4]. This Virchow encapsulated in the epigram Omnis cellula e cellula ("every cell originates from another existing cell like it.") which he published in 1858. (The epigram was actually coined by François-Vincent Raspail but popularized by Virchow).[5] It is a rejection of the concept of spontaneous generation, which held that organisms could arise from non-living matter. It was believed, for example, that maggots could spontaneously appear in decaying meat; Francesco Redi carried out experiments which disproved this. Redi's work gave rise to 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.

Another significant credit relates to the discovery, made approximately simultaneously by Virchow and Charles Emile Troisier, that an enlarged left supra-clavicular node is one of the earliest signs of gastrointestinal malignancy, commonly of the stomach, or less commonly, lung cancer. This has become known as Virchow's node and simultaneously Troisier's sign.

Virchow is also famous for elucidating the mechanism of pulmonary thromboembolism, coining the term embolism. He noted that blood clots in the pulmonary artery originate first from venous thrombi, stating: "The 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." Related to this research, Virchow described the factors contributing to venous thrombosis, Virchow's triad.

Furthermore, Virchow founded the medical fields of cellular pathology and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His very innovative work may be viewed as sitting between that of Morgagni whose work Virchow studied, and that of Paul Ehrlich, who studied at the Charité while Virchow was developing microscopic pathology there.

Rudolf Virchow, by Hugo Vogel

In 1869 he founded the Society for anthropology, ethnology and prehistory (Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) which was very influential in coordinating and intensifying German archaeological research. In 1885 he launched a study of craniometry, which gave surprising results according to contemporary scientific racist theories on the "Aryan race", leading him to denounce the "Nordic mysticism" in the 1885 Anthropology Congress in Karlsruhe. Josef Kollmann , a collaborator of Virchow, stated in the same congress that the people of Europe, be them German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races," furthermore declaring that the "results of craniology" led to "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race" on others .[6]

In 1861, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1892 he was awarded the Copley Medal. Among his most famous students was anthropologist Franz Boas, who became a professor at Columbia University.

He was a very prolific writer. Some of his works are:

He also developed a standard method of autopsy procedure, named for him, that is still one of the two main techniques used today. More than a laboratory physician, Virchow was an impassioned advocate for social and political reform, stating that "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....The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and social problems fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction." His views are evident in his "Report on the Typhus Outbreak of Upper Silesia (1848), "writing 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.[7] He is widely regarded as a pioneer of social medicine.[8] and anthropology."[9]

He died of heart failure. Virchow was buried in the St Matthews Cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin.

Hostility toward antiseptics

Despite these many accomplishments in medicine, Virchow's reputation is somewhat tarnished by his rejection of and hostility towards the theory that bacteria cause disease. His attacks on Ignaz Semmelweis's advocacy of antisepsis delayed the use of antiseptics.[10]

Opposition to Darwinism

Virchow famously delivered an anti-Darwinian lecture on human and primate skulls, in which he emphasized the lack of fossil evidence for a common ancestor of man and ape.

Medical terms named after Virchow

He concluded that for cells to be created they must go through mitosis.

Political career

Virchow also worked as a politician (member of the Berlin City Council, the Prussian parliament since 1861, German Reichstag 1880-1893) to improve the health care conditions for the Berlin citizens, namely working towards modern water and sewer systems. Virchow is also credited with the founding of "Social Medicine", frequently focusing on the fact that disease is never purely biological, but often, socially derived. As a co-founder and member of the liberal party (Deutschen Fortschrittspartei) he was a leading political antagonist of Bismarck.

It is said (though not confirmed) that Otto von Bismarck challenged Rudolf Virchow to a duel. Virchow, who as the challenged party had the choice of weapons, chose two sausages, one of which had been inoculated with cholera. Bismarck is said to have called off the duel at once.[11]

One area where he co-operated with Bismarck was in the Kulturkampf, the anti-clerical campaign against the Catholic Church[12] claiming that the anti-clerical laws bore "the character of a great struggle in the interest of humanity".[13] It was during the discussion of Falk’s May Laws (Maigesetze) that Virchow first used the term.[14]

Virchow was respected in Masonic circles,[15] and according to one source[16] may have been a freemason, though no official record of this has been found.

The Society for Medical Anthropology gives an annual award in Virchow's name, Rudolf Virchow Award.

References

  1. ↑ BBC4 'The Cell: 1 The Hidden Kingdom', Dr Adam Rutherford, Aug 2009
  2. ↑ Silver, GA (Jan 1987). "Virchow, the heroic model in medicine: health policy by accolade.". American Hournal of Public Health 1 (77): 86. PMID 3538915. PMC 1646803. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1646803&pageindex=5. Retrieved Sep 2009. 
  3. ↑ A history of the life sciences, Lois N. Magner, p185
  4. ↑ BBC The Cell by Dr. Adam Rutherford Ep.1 The Hidden Kingdom http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m5w92
  5. ↑ Tan SY, Brown J (July 2006). "Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902): "pope of pathology"" (PDF). Singapore Med J 47 (7): 567–8. PMID 16810425. http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4707/4707ms1.pdf. 
  6. ↑ Andrea Orsucci, "Ariani, indogermani, stirpi mediterranee: aspetti del dibattito sulle razze europee (1870-1914), Cromohs, 1998 (Italian)
  7. ↑ http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/full/96/12/2102
  8. ↑ http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/full/96/12/2104
  9. ↑ Rx for Survival . Global Health Champions . Paul Farmer, MD, PhD | PBS at www.pbs.org
  10. ↑ HighBeam Encyclopedia http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-382053.html
  11. ↑ Isaac Asimov, Treasury of Humor, page 202.
  12. ↑ "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
  13. ↑ "The term came into use in 1873, when the scientist and Prussian liberal statesman Rudolf Virchow declared that the battle with the Roman Catholics was assuming “the character of a great struggle in the interest of humanity.”" from Kulturkampf. (2006). Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 25, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica
  14. ↑ 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." from The Triumph of Civilization by Norman D. Livergood and "Kulturkampf \Kul*tur"kampf`\, n. [G., 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
  15. ↑ "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 AS A MASON by AUSTIN CRAIG, The Builder Magazine, August 1916 - Volume II - Number 8
  16. ↑ "It was a heady atmosphere for the young Brother, and Masons in Germany, Dr. Rudolf Virchow and Dr. Feodor Jagor, were instrumental in his becoming a member of the Berlin Ethnological and Anthropological Societies." From Dimasalang: The Masonic Life Of Dr. Jose P. Rizal By Reynold S. Fajardo, 33° by Fred Lamar Pearson, Scottish Rite Journal, October 1998

Further reading

External links

Copley Medallists

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