Rudolf virchow biography facts and pictures

Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, politician and social reformer, but he is best known as the founder of the field of cellular pathology. He stressed that most of the diseases of mankind could be understood in terms of the dysfunction of cells.

The use of the word 'cell' to describe the basic unit of life was famously coined by Robert Hooke in 1665, and Theodor Schwann had begun to elaborate his cell theory in Virchow's time, but histology was still dominated by the theories of Marie Bichat. Bichat, an 18 century French anatomist, had described 21 basic tissues in animals, but because he eschewed the use of the microscope, which he distrusted, his descriptions were necessarily at the level of gross anatomy. 

Unlike Bichat, Virchow loved the microscope, and like Schwann, recognized cells to be of paramount importance. According to Virchow, \the structural composition of a body of considerable size, a so-called individual, always represents a kind of social arrangement of parts, an arrangement of a social kind, in which a number of individual existences are mutually dependent, but in such a way, that every element has its own special action, and even though it derive its stimulus to activity from other parts, yet alone effects the actual performance of its duties." In 1855, he proposed the axiom 'Omnis cellula e cellula'—every cell arises from another cell. 

Virchow also coined the terms 'thrombus' and 'embolism' and showed that pulmonary embolisms could arise from clots first formed in the legs. "I long entertained doubts whether to consider the metastatic inflammation of the lungs one and all as embolical, because it is very difficult to examine vessels in the small metastatic deposits, but I am continually becoming more and more convinced of the necessity of regarding this mode of or

Rudolph Virchow, the famous German pathologist, with a lot of help from fellow countrymen Rudolph Leukart (Rudolph was apparently a very popular name in Germany in those days) and Friedrich Zenker, is generally acknowledged as the person who, through basic laboratory experimentation, deciphered the essentials of the life cycle of Trichinella spiralis. All this happened from the middle 1850's to the 1870's. To do so, Virchow took advantage of serendipity; an old dog and a fresh cadaver whose muscle tissue was riddled with white flecks, just like those Sir Richard Owen and Sir James Paget encountered in 1835. Microscopic examination confirmed that the flecks were, indeed, Trichinella spiralis larvae just waiting to be eaten. Rudolph then fed his poor unsuspecting canine a large quantity of this infected human muscle tissue. Days later, when he autopsied the now dead dog, he observed the enteral stage (adult worm) in the small intestine, and concluded correctly that trichinella may cause disease in humans, as well. Most importantly, Virchow discovered that if the infected meat is first heated to 137 F for a minimum of 10 min, the worms were no longer infective. He experimented vigorously and wrote extensively about the life of this worm (see: front piece from Lebre von den Trichinen), and began traveling around the German countryside extolling the virtues of eating well-done ham and well-done other pork products, too.

The story gets a bit fuzzy from this point on. Rawfleisch (lightly smoke-cured ham), an almost sacred national food specialty, and other under-cooked pork dishes, were now first-class nicht nichts, at least according to the brash and confident Rudolph. Needless to say, the German Veterinarian’s Society took exception to the contents of his speeches and eventually assigned a veterinarian to follow him about and loudly contradict his statements. Rudy quickly grew weary of such potentially harmful public relations hype, and eventual

German doctor and polymath (1821–1902)

Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (VEER-koh, FEER-khoh;German:[ˈʁuːdɔlfˈvɪʁço,-ˈfɪʁço]; 13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder of social medicine, and to his colleagues, the "Pope of medicine".

Virchow studied medicine at the Friedrich Wilhelm University under Johannes Peter Müller. While working at the Charité hospital, his investigation of the 1847–1848 typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia laid the foundation for public health 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 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 in 1849. After seven years, in 1856, Charité reinstated him to its new Institute for Pathology. He co-founded the political party Deutsche Fortschrittspartei, and was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives and won a seat in the Reichstag. His opposition to Otto von Bismarck'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").

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: Omnis cellula e cellula ("All cells come from cells"), although this concept is now widely recognized as bei

Rudolf Virchow (born October 13, 1821 in Shivelbein, Kingdom of Prussia) was a German physician who made a number of strides in medicine, public health, and other fields such as archaeology. Virchow is known as the father of modern pathology—the study of disease. He advanced the theory of how cells form, particularly the idea that every cell comes from another cell.

Virchow’s work helped bring more scientific rigor to medicine. Many prior theories had not been based on scientific observations and experiments.

Early Life and Education

Rudolf Virchow was born on October 13, 1821 in Shivelbein, Kingdom of Prussia (now Świdwin, Poland). He was the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow, a farmer and treasurer, and Johanna Maria Hesse. At a young age, Virchow already exhibited extraordinary intellectual abilities, and his parents paid for extra lessons to advance Virchow's education. Virchow attended the local elementary school at Shivelbein and was the best student in his class in high school.

In 1839, Virchow was awarded a scholarship to study medicine from the Prussian Military Academy, which would prepare him to become an army physician. Virchow studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelm Institut, part of the University of Berlin. The