Rudolf Virchow

Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (audioⁱ, Schivelbein, Pomerania, Prussia, today Świdwin, Poland, October 13, 1821 - Berlin, September 5, 1902) was a German physician, pathologist, politician, anthropologist and biologist. He is often considered the 'father of modern pathology'. because his work helped refute the ancient belief in humorism. He is also considered one of the founders of social medicine and was a pioneer of the modern concept of the pathological process by presenting his cellular theory, in which he explained the effects of diseases on the organs and tissues of the body, emphasizing that diseases arise not in organs or tissues in general, but primarily in individual cells. He is often credited with being the creator of the term omnis cellula e cellula (every cell comes from another cell), but, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it was coined by François Vincent Raspail in 1825.

In 1861 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences^{[citation required]} and in 1892 he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine three times.

Life

Virchow was born on October 13, 1821 in Schivelbein, Prussia (now Świdwin, Poland), located in a rural and poor region. He had no siblings. His father Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow was a farmer and ran the family business. (It is not known exactly what type of business it was, perhaps a butcher shop.) He also worked as treasurer for the city. Almost nothing is known about Rudolf Virchow's mother. She was called Johanna Maria Hesse before she married.From 1835 to 1839 he went to the Gymnasium, where he was always first in the class. According to Elliot Weisenberg, Virchow was an excellent student and could speak German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian, and Dutch fluently. However, these claims seem exaggerated, since in his 2021 book Rudolf Virchow: Physician - Anthropologist - Politician, Constantin Goschler mentions only some of these languages, not all of them spoken (rather they were used to read books and scientific essays to a certain level). It is also not feasible that he spoke Hebrew, given that at that time it was only a liturgical language, lacking modern terms (although increasingly used within the framework of Zionism). He does seem to have spoken Yiddish, at least at some level.

He received a scholarship for poor talented students. The scholarship provided for the winners to study medicine and then work as surgeons in the army. Virchow graduated in 1843. Afterwards he still did not work for the army (although he would later organize military hospitals), but for the Charité, the university hospital of reference in the German Empire (and Europe at the time), located in Berlin.. In 1845 he described a case of leukemia that was one of the first two cases of this disease to be described. At the Charité, Virchow worked as a prosector.

Contributions to Medicine

In 1848 Rudolf Virchow demonstrated the falsehood of the belief that phlebitis (inflammation of the veins) causes most diseases. He demonstrated that “masses” in blood vessels are the result of thrombosis (his term) and that portions of thrombi can disintegrate to form emboli (also his term). An embolus free in the circulation can eventually become trapped in a narrow vessel and lead to serious injury to neighboring tissues.

Around 1800, the French anatomist Xavier Bichat demonstrated that the body is composed of twenty-one types of tissues and considered that in the disease of an organ only some of the tissues are affected.

The subsequent events in the complex history of cell theory took place during Virchow's youth; and in Würzburg he began to realize one of the forms of cell theory, which postulated that cells originate from preexisting cells and not from amorphous material (omnis cellula e cellula, "all "cell comes from another cell"), could be used to explain pathological processes. Also starting point for Weismann's germ plasm theory.

In the above he was influenced by many other works; among them by the observations of John Goodsir of Edinburgh and by the research of Robert Remak, a German neuroanatomist and embryologist, who in 1852 was one of the first to point out that the multiplication of cells to form tissues is accompanied by cell division. In that year Remak concluded that also in diseased tissues, new cells come from already existing cells.

This is the idea presented by Virchow in omnis cellula e cellula and therefore it is not a completely original idea. Although the importance in the context of cellular pathology is due to him.

The main testament to Virchow's theory is a series of twenty articles made in 1858. The readings were published in 1858 in book form under the name Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre (Cellular pathology based on pathological and physiological histology).

Virchow presented new and important theories of the inflammation process, "although he wrongly rejected the possibility of leukocyte migration. [...] he showed great interest in the pathology of tumors; although the importance of his articles on malignant tumors was somewhat discredited by his erroneous conception that they are malignant due to a transformation (metaplasia) of connective tissue. [...] In 1874 he introduced a standardized technique for performing autopsies, in which the entire body was examined in detail, often revealing unsuspected injuries. "He also discovered neuroglia in the sheath of cerebral arteries.

Virchow's attitude toward the new science of bacteriology was complex. He was antagonistic to the idea of bacteria causing disease. He argued that the discovery of some microorganisms in certain diseases does not always mean that the organism is part of the disease. He suggested, long before toxins were discovered, that some bacteria could produce these substances. Likewise, Virchow was antagonistic to Darwin's theory of natural selection and expressed doubts about the evidence for it. For a long time he argued that there was not enough scientific evidence to justify full acceptance of it. In his opinion, the Neanderthal man, discovered in 1856, had not been a primitive human but rather a deformed individual, due to the shape of his skull, rickety and arthritic, due to the shape of his bones.

Other activities

In addition to his scientific and political work, Virchow also developed important work in the field of anthropology. He edited several books on ethnology,^{[citation required]} in addition to carry out expeditions to Egypt, Troy and the Caucasus./>

In 1847 Virchow and a friend of his, Benno Reinhardt, founded a medical journal, the Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medizin, and after Reinhardt's death in 1852, Virchow continued editing the magazine alone until he also died, 50 years later. (From 1902 the magazine will be called Virchows Archiv).

In 1848 Virchow investigated an outbreak of typhus on behalf of the Prussian Government. In his report on the outbreak he concluded that social conditions and the Government were responsible for the outbreak, which annoyed the Government. The same year Virchow took part in the revolutions of 1848 and from July 1848 to June 1849 he published a weekly newspaper called Die Medizinische Reform (The Medical Reform).

In 1849 he received the newly created chair of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Würzburg, a position he held for seven years. In 1850 he married Rose Mayer. The couple will have six children. In Würzburg Virchow dedicated himself to the publication of numerous articles and a six-volume book on pathology and therapies, the first volume of which he wrote almost completely alone. Also in Würzburg, he formulated his theories on cellular pathology and examined skulls for his anthropological research.

In 1850 he took up the cell theory of Schwann and the botanist Schleiden to apply it to pathology. He located the origin of diseases in cells, which he observed responded to the presence of abnormal conditions. In 1858 he published Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre, in which he continued and expanded the work begun by Bichat on tissue diseases, by applying his cell theory to them.

In 1856 a chair of Pathological Anatomy was created for Virchow at the University of Berlin. Virchow accepted the appointment subject to certain conditions, one of which was the construction of a new pathological institute, which he used for the rest of his life.During this time Virchow also became involved in politics. From 1859 he was a member of the Berlin city council and there he dealt with public health, "for example sewage disposal, hospital design, meat inspection and hygiene in schools."

He was one of the founders of the German Progressive Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei) in 1861. From 1862 to 1867 he was a member of the Prussian Parliament. He advocated reducing military spending and increasing public spending for social assistance. He managed to ensure that Berlin received central canalization and sewage networks.He was an adversary of Otto von Bismarck. During times of war he was involved in organizing military hospitals and train hospitals. From 1880 to 1884 he was a member of the German Parliament, the Reichstag, for the German Progressive Party and from 1884 to 1893 for the German Freethinking Party (Deutsch- Freisinnige Partei).

From 1886 to 1888 he participated in the founding of two museums in Berlin, one of which was the Berlin Ethnological Museum. He died on September 5, 1902 in Berlin.

Eponymy

• The moon crater Virchow bears this name in his memory.
• The asteroid (13084) Virchow also commemorates its name.
• The Society for Medical Anthropology (Society for Medical Anthropology) awards the Rudolf Virchow Annual Award (Rudolf Virchow Award).