Notes

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Rudolf Virchow
|image = Rudolf Virchow NLM3.jpg
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1821|10|13|df=yes}}
|birth_place = [[Schivelbein]], [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1902|09|5|1821|10|13|df=yes}}
|death_place = [[Berlin]], [[German Empire]]
|resting_place = [[Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof]], [[Schöneberg]]
|resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|52.28
|13.22|type:landmark|display=inline}}
|nationality = [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]]
|field = [[Medicine]]<br>[[Anthropology]]
|work_institutions = [[Charité]]<br>[[University of Würzburg]]
|alma_mater = [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]]
| thesis_title = de rheumate praesertim corneae
| thesis_year = 184
|doctoral_advisor = [[Johannes Peter Müller]]
|academic_advisors = [[Robert Froriep]]
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students = [[Ernst Haeckel]]<br>[[Edwin Klebs]]<br>[[Franz Boas]]<br>[[Adolph Kussmaul]]<br>[[Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen]]<br>[[Max Westenhöfer]]
|known_for = [[Cell theory]]<br>[[Cellular pathology]]<br>[[Biogenesis]]<br>[[Virchow's triad]]
|influenced = [[Eduard Hitzig]]<br>[[Charles Scott Sherrington]]<br>[[Paul Farmer]]
|awards = [[Copley Medal]] (1892)
|spouse = Ferdinande Rosalie Mayer (aka Rose Virchow)
|signature = Rudolf Virchow signature.svg
}}

'''Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|ˈ|v|ɪər|k|oʊ|,_|ˈ|f|ɪər|x|oʊ}};<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Virchow "Virchow"]. ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]''.</ref> {{IPA-de|ˈvɪɐ̯çoː|lang}};<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjKuA58bGJA Historisches Interview mit Rudolf Virchow – Historiale eV]<!--at 0:00--></ref><ref>[http://de.forvo.com/word/virchow/ "Virchow"]. ''[[Forvo]]''.</ref> 13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902) was a German [[physician]], [[Anthropology|anthropologist]], [[Pathology|pathologist]], [[prehistorian]], [[biologist]], writer, editor, and politician, known for his advancement of [[public health]]. He is known as "the father of modern [[pathology]]" because his work helped to discredit [[humourism]], bringing [[medical science|more science to medicine]]. He is also known as the founder of [[social medicine]] and veterinary pathology, and to his colleagues, the "Pope of medicine".<ref name=silver87>{{cite journal|last1=Silver|first1=G A|title=Virchow, the heroic model in medicine: health policy by accolade|journal=American Journal of Public Health|date=1987|volume=77|issue=1|pages=82–88|doi=10.2105/AJPH.77.1.82|pmid=3538915|pmc=1646803}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Nordenström|first1=Jörgen|title=The Hunt for the Parathyroids|date=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Chichester, West Sussex|isbn=978-1-118-34339-5|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0UmWnc-lYUC&dq}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Huisman|first1=Frank|last2=Warner|first2=John Harley|title=Locating Medical History: The Stories and Their Meanings|date=2004|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0-8018-7861-9|page=415|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ND5d0K4sE8AC&pg}}</ref>

Born and raised in Schievelbein ([[Świdwin]]) as an only child of a [[working class|working-class family]], he proved to be a brilliant student. Dissuaded by his weak voice, he abandoned his initial interest in theology and turned to medicine. With the help of a special military scholarship, he earned his medical degree from Friedrich-Wilhelms Institute ([[Humboldt University of Berlin]]) under the tutelage of [[Johannes Peter Müller]]. He worked at the [[Charité]] hospital under [[Robert Froriep]], whom he eventually succeeded as the [[prosector]].<ref name=weisenberg>{{cite journal|last1=Weisenberg|first1=Elliot|title=Rudolf Virchow, pathologist, anthropologist, and social thinker|journal=Hektoen International Journal|year=2009|volume=Online|url=http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294%3Arudolf-virchow-pathologist-anthropologist-and-social-thinker&catid=71%3Ahistory&Itemid=685|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref>

Although he failed to contain the 1847–1848 [[typhus|typhus epidemic]] in [[Upper Silesia]], his report laid the foundation for [[public health]] in Germany, as well as his political and social activities. From it, he coined a well known aphorism: "Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale". He participated in the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|Revolution of 1848]], which led to his expulsion from Charité the next year. He published a newspaper ''Die medicinische Reform'' (''Medical Reform'') during this period to disseminate his social and political ideas. He took the first Chair of Pathological Anatomy at the [[University of Würzburg]] in 1849. After five years, Charité invited him back to direct its newly built Institute for Pathology, and simultaneously becoming the first Chair of Pathological Anatomy and Physiology at Berlin University. The campus of Charité is now named Campus Virchow Klinikum. He cofounded the political party [[Deutsche Fortschrittspartei]], by which he was elected to the [[Prussian House of Representatives]], and won a seat in the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]]. His opposition to [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s financial policy resulted in an anecdotal "Sausage Duel" between the two. But he ardently supported Bismarck in his anti-Catholic campaigns, the social revolution he himself named as ''[[Kulturkampf]]'' ("culture struggle").<ref name=kulturkampf>{{cite web|title=Kulturkampf|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324668/Kulturkampf|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref>

A prolific writer, his scientific writings alone exceeded 2,000 in number.<ref name=Buikstra>{{cite book|last1=Buikstra|first1=Jane E.|last2=Roberts|first2=Charlotte A.|title=The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-1953-8980-7|pages=388–390|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8V0ijRYk_2UC&dq}}</ref> Among his books, ''Cellular Pathology'' published in 1858 is regarded as the root of modern pathology. This work also popularised the third dictum in [[cell theory]]: ''Omnis cellula e cellula'' ("All cells come from cells"); although his idea originated in 1855.<ref name=kuiper>{{cite book|last1=Kuiper|first1=Kathleen|title=The Britannica Guide to Theories and Ideas That Changed the Modern World|date=2010|publisher=Britannica Educational Pub. in association with Rosen Educational Services|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-1-61530-029-7|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trcNbD0FAqQC&dq}}</ref> He founded journals such as ''Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medizin'' (now ''[[Virchows Archiv]]''), and ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'' (''Journal of Ethnology''). The latter is published by German Anthropological Association and the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, the societies of which he also founded.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie''|url=http://www.zeitschrift-fuer-ethnologie.de/|accessdate=29 November 2014}}</ref>

Virchow was the first to precisely describe and give names of diseases such as [[leukemia]], [[chordoma]], [[ochronosis]], [[embolism]], and [[thrombosis]]. He coined scientific terms, [[chromatin]], [[agenesis]], [[parenchyma]], [[osteoid]], [[amyloid degeneration]], and [[spina bifida]]. His description of the transmission cycle of a roundworm ''[[Trichinella spiralis]]'' established the importance of meat inspection, which was started in Berlin. He developed the first systematic method of [[autopsy]] involving surgery of all body parts and microscopic examination.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629797/Rudolf-Virchow/7719/Medical-investigations|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|accessdate=29 November 2014}}</ref> A number of medical terms are named after him, including [[Virchow's node]], [[Virchow–Robin spaces]], [[Virchow–Seckel syndrome]], and [[Virchow's triad]]. He was the first to use hair analysis in criminal investigation, and recognised its limitations.<ref name=oien>{{cite journal|last1=Oien|first1=Cary T|title=Forensic Hair Comparison: Background Information for Interpretation|journal=Forensic Science Communications|date=2009|volume=11|issue=2|page=Online|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/lab/forensic-science-communications/fsc/april2009/review/2009_04_review02.htm/}}</ref> His laborious analyses of the hair, skin, and eye colour of school children made him criticise the [[Aryan race]] concept as a myth.<ref name=silberstein>{{cite book|last1=Silberstein|first1=Laurence J.|last2=Cohn|first2=Robert L.|title=The Other in Jewish Thought and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity|year=1994|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8147-7990-3|pages=375–376|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aawa_AqjINQC&pg=PA375&lpg}}</ref>

He was an ardent [[Anti-evolutionism|anti-evolutionist]]. He referred to [[Charles Darwin]] as an "ignoramus" and his own student [[Ernst Haeckel]], the leading advocate of [[Darwinism]] in Germany, as a "fool". He discredited the [[Neanderthal 1|original specimen of Neanderthal man]] as nothing but that of a deformed human, and not an ancestral species.<ref name=glick>{{cite book|last1=Glick|first1=Thomas F.|title=The Comparative reception of Darwinism|year=1988|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-29977-8|pages=86–87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UDXzS3MIO8C&dq}}</ref> He was an [[agnostic]].<ref name=etzioni>{{cite book|last1=Etzioni|first1=Amos|last2=Ochs|first2=Hans D.|title=Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders: A Historic and Scientific Perspective|date=2014|publisher=Elsevier Academic Press|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0-12-407179-7|pages=3–4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SF9zAwAAQBAJ&dq}}</ref>

In 1861, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]. In 1892, he was awarded the [[Copley Medal]] of the British [[Royal Society]]. He was elected to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] in 1873, and entitled an ennoblement "von Virchow", but which he declined.

==Life and scientific career==
[[File:Rudolf Virchow NLM9.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Young Virchow]]

Virchow was born in Schievelbein in eastern [[Pomerania]], [[Prussia]] (now [[Świdwin]] in [[Poland]]).<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Virchow, Rudolf|title=Appletons' Cyclopaedia for 1902|year=1903|pages=520–521|location=NY|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4FRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA520}}</ref> He was the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow (1785–1865) and Johanna Maria ''née'' Hesse (1785–1857). His father was a farmer and the city treasurer. Academically brilliant, he always topped in his classes and was fluent in German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian, and Dutch. He progressed to the [[Gymnasium (Germany)|gymnasium]] in Köslin (now [[Koszalin]] in [[Poland]]) in 1835 with the goal to become a pastor. He graduated in 1839 upon a thesis titled ''A Life Full of Work and Toil is not a Burden but a Benediction''. However, he chose to start studying medicine mainly because he considered his voice too weak for preaching.<ref name=weisenberg/>

[[File:Erinnerungsstein und Denkmal für den Arzt Rudolf Virchow in 78-300 Swidwin (Schivelbein).jpg|thumb|Memorial stone of Rudolf Virchow in his hometown [[Świdwin]], now in Poland]]
In 1839, he received a military fellowship (a scholarship for gifted children from poor family to become arm surgeon), for studying medicine at Friedrich-Wilhelms Institute in Berlin (now [[Humboldt University of Berlin]]).<ref name=encyclo2004>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Rudolf_Ludwig_Carl_Virchow.aspx|work=Encyclopedia of World Biography|publisher=HighBeam™ Research, Inc.|accessdate=24 November 2014|year=2004}}</ref> He was most influenced by [[Johannes Peter Müller]]. He defended his thesis titled ''de rheumate praesertim corneae'' (corneal manifestations of rheumatic disease) for medical degree on 21 October 1843, with Müller as his [[doctoral advisor]].<ref name=weller21>{{cite journal|last1=Weller|first1=Carl Vernon|title=Rudolf Virchow--Pathologist|journal=The Scientific Monthly|year=1921|volume=13|issue=1|pages=33–39|jstor=6580}}</ref> Immediately on graduation he became subordinate physician to Müller.<ref name=whonmaedit>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/912.html|work=Whonamedit?|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref> But shortly after, he joined the [[Charité]] Hospital in Berlin for internship. In 1844, he was appointed as medical assistant to the prosector (pathologist) [[Robert Froriep]], from whom he learned [[microscopy]] for his interest in pathology. Froriep was also the editor of an abstract journal that specialised in foreign work, allowing Virchow to be exposed to the more forward-looking scientific ideas of France and England.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Virchow published his first scientific paper in 1845 in which he wrote the earliest known pathological descriptions of [[leukemia]]. He qualified the medical licensure examination in 1846, and immediately succeeded Froriep as hospital prosector at the Charité. In 1847, he was appointed to his first academic position with the rank of ''[[privatdozent]]''. Because his writings were not receiving favourable attention by German editors, with colleague [[Benno Reinhardt]] he founded ''Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medizin'' (now known as ''Virchows Archiv'') in 1847. He edited alone from Reinhardt's death in 1852 until his own.<ref name=weisenberg/><ref name=encyclo2004/> This journal began publishing high-level contributions based on the criterion that no papers would be published which contained outdated, untested, dogmatic or speculative ideas. Unlike his German peers, Virchow had great faith in clinical observation, [[Animal Experimentation|animal experimentation]] (to determine causes of diseases and the effects of drugs) and pathological anatomy, particularly at the microscopic level, as the basic principles of investigation in [[medical sciences]]. He went further and stated that the [[Cell (biology)|cell]] was the basic unit of the body that had to be studied to understand disease. Although the term '[[Cell (biology)|cell]]' had been coined in the 1665 by an English scientist [[Robert Hooke]], the building blocks of life were still considered to be the 21 tissues of Bichat, a concept described by the French physician [[Marie Bichat]].<ref name=americana/><ref name="Bagot2008">{{cite journal|author=Bagot, C. N., Arya, R.|title=Virchow and his triad: a question of attribution|journal=British Journal of Haematology|year=2008|volume=143|issue=2|pages=180–189|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.07323.x|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.07323.x/full|pmid=18783400}}</ref>

The Prussian government never deployed Virchow to study the typhus epidemic in [[Upper Silesia]] in during 1847–1848. It was from this medical campaign that he developed his ideas on social medicine and politics after seeing the victims and their poverty. Even though he was not particularly successful in combating the epidemic, his 190-paged ''Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia'' in 1848 became a turning point in politics and public health in Germany.<ref name=taylor85>{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=R|last2=Rieger|first2=A|title=Medicine as social science: Rudolf Virchow on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia|journal=International Journal of Health Services|year=1985|volume=15|issue=4|pages=547–559|pmid=3908347|doi=10.2190/xx9v-acd4-kuxd-c0e5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Azar|first1=HA|title=Rudolf Virchow, not just a pathologist: a re-examination of the report on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia|journal=Annals of Diagnostic Pathology|year=1997|volume=1|issue=1|pages=65–71|doi=10.1016/S1092-9134(97)80010-X|pmid=9869827}}</ref> He returned to Berlin on 10 March 1848, and only eight days later, a [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|revolution]] broke out against the government in which he played an active part. To fight political injustice he helped finding ''Die medicinische Reform (Medical Reform)'', a weekly newspaper for promoting social medicine, in July of that year. The newspaper ran under the banners "medicine is a social science" and "the physician is the natural attorney of the poor". Political pressures forced him terminate the publication in June 1849 and became expelled from his official position.<ref name=brown2006>{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Theodore M.|last2=Fee|first2=Elizabeth|title=Rudolf Carl Virchow|journal=American Journal of Public Health|year=2006|volume=96|issue=12|pages=2104–2105|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2005.078436|pmid=17077410|pmc=1698150}}</ref> In November, he was given academic appointment and left Berlin for [[University of Würzburg]] to hold Germany's first chair of pathological anatomy. During his six-year period there, he concentrated on his scientific work, including detailed studies on venous thrombosis and cellular theory. His first major work there was a six-volume ''Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie (Handbook on Special Pathology and Therapeutics)'' published in 1854. In 1856, he returned to Berlin to become the newly created Chair for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, as well as Director of the newly built Institute for Pathology on the premises of the Charité. He held the latter post for the next 20 years.<ref name="Bagot2008"/><ref name=berlinmuseum>{{cite web|title=Virchow’s Biography|url=http://www.bmm-charite.de/biography-of-rudolf-virchow.html|publisher=Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité |accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref><ref name=boak21>{{cite journal|last1=Boak|first1=Arthur ER|title=Rudolf Virchow--Anthropologist and Archeologist|journal=The Scientific Monthly|year=1921|volume=13|issue=1|pages=40–45|jstor=6581}}</ref>

==Scientific contributions==

===Cell biology===
[[File:Virchow-cell.jpg|thumb|235px|Illustration of Virchow's [[cell theory]]]]

Virchow is credited with several very important discoveries. His most widely known scientific contribution is his [[cell theory]], which built on the work of [[Theodor Schwann]]. He was one of the first to accept the work of [[Robert Remak]], who showed the origins of cells was the division of pre-existing cells.<ref>Lois N. Magner ''A history of the life sciences'', Marcel Dekker, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8247-0824-5}}, p. 185</ref> He did not initially accept the evidence for cell division, believing 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.<ref name=BBC>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m5w92|publisher=BBC4|title=The Cell: Episode 1 The Hidden Kingdom|author=Rutherford, Adam|date=August 2009}}</ref> This work, Virchow encapsulated in the epigram ''Omnis cellula e cellula'' ("all cells (come) from cells"), which he published in 1855.<ref name=kuiper/><ref name="Bagot2008"/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tixier-Vidal|first1=Andrée|title=De la théorie cellulaire à la théorie neuronale|journal=Biologie Aujourd'hui|year=2011|volume=204|issue=4|pages=253–266|doi=10.1051/jbio/2010015|pmid=21215242|language=French}}</ref> (The [[epigram]] was actually coined by [[François-Vincent Raspail]], but popularized by Virchow.)<ref name="pmid16810425">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tan SY, Brown J |title=Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902): "pope of pathology" |journal=Singapore Med J |volume=47 |issue=7 |pages=567–8 |date=July 2006 |pmid=16810425 |url=http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4707/4707ms1.pdf|format=PDF}}</ref> It is a rejection of the concept of spontaneous generation, which held that organisms could arise from nonliving matter. For example, maggots were believed to spontaneously appear in decaying meat; [[Francesco Redi]] carried out experiments which disproved this notion and coined 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

===Cancer===

In 1845, Virchow and [[John Hughes Bennett]] independently observed abnormal increase in white blood cells in patients. Virchow correctly identified the condition as blood disease, and named it ''leukämie'' in 1847 (later anglicised to [[leukemia]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Degos|first1=L|title=John Hughes Bennett, Rudolph Virchow... and Alfred Donné: the first description of leukemia|journal=The Hematology Journal|year=2001|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1|pmid=11920227|doi=10.1038/sj/thj/6200090}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kampen|first1=Kim R.|title=The discovery and early understanding of leukemia|journal=Leukemia Research|year=2012|volume=36|issue=1|pages=6–13|doi=10.1016/j.leukres.2011.09.028|pmid=22033191}}</ref><ref name="Mukherjee2010">{{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Siddhartha|authorlink=Siddhartha Mukherjee|title=The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rF_31RVTnMC|accessdate=6 September 2011|date=16 November 2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-0795-9}}</ref> In 1857, he was the first to describe a type of [[tumour]] called [[chordoma]] that originated from the [[Clivus (anatomy)|clivus]] (at the base of the [[cranium|skull]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hirsch|first1=Edwin F.|last2=Ingals|first2=Mary|title=Sacrococcygeal chordoma|journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association|year=1923|volume=80|issue=19|pages=1369|doi=10.1001/jama.1923.02640460019007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lopes|first1=Ademar|last2=Rossi|first2=Benedito Mauro|last3=Silveira|first3=Claudio Regis Sampaio|last4=Alves|first4=Antonio Correa|title=Chordoma: retrospective analysis of 24 cases|journal=Sao Paulo Medical Journal|year=1996|volume=114|issue=6|pages=1312–1316|doi=10.1590/S1516-31801996000600006}}</ref>

===Theory on cancer origin===

Virchow was the first to correctly link the origin of cancers from otherwise normal cells.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wagner|first1=RP|title=Anecdotal, historical and critical commentaries on genetics. Rudolph Virchow and the genetic basis of somatic ecology|journal=Genetics|year=1999|volume=151|issue=3|pages=917–920|pmid=10049910|url=http://www.genetics.org/content/151/3/917.full|pmc=1460541}}</ref> (His teacher Müller had proposed that cancers originated from cells, but from special cells, which he called blastema.) In 1855, he suggested that cancers arise from the activation of dormant cells (perhaps similar to cells now known as [[stem cell]]s) present in mature tissue.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goldthwaite|first1=Charles A.|title=Are Stem Cells Involved in Cancer?|url=http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/Regenerative_Medicine/pages/2006chapter9.aspx|publisher=National Institutes of Health|accessdate=22 December 2014|date=20 November 2011}}</ref> Virchow believed that cancer is caused by severe irritation in the tissues, and his theory came to be known as chronic irritation theory. He thought, rather wrongly, that the irritation spread in the form of liquid so that cancer rapidly increases.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Cancer|url=http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/thehistoryofcancer/the-history-of-cancer-cancer-causes-theories-throughout-history|publisher=American Cancer Society, Inc.|accessdate=22 December 2014}}</ref> His theory was largely ignored, as he was proved wrong that it was not by liquid, but by [[metastasis]] of the already cancerous cells that cancers spread. (First described by [[Karl Thiersch]] in the 1860s.)<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mandal|first1=Aranya|title=Cancer History|url=http://www.news-medical.net/health/Cancer-History.aspx|website=News-Medical.net|accessdate=22 December 2014}}</ref> But he made a crucial observation that certain cancers ([[carcinoma]] in modern sense) were inherently associated with white blood cells (which are now called [[macrophages]]) that produced irritation ([[inflammation]]). It was only towards the end of the 20th century that Virchow's theory was taken seriously.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Balkwill|first1=Fran|last2=Mantovani|first2=Alberto|title=Inflammation and cancer: back to Virchow?|journal=The Lancet|year=2001|volume=357|issue=9255|pages=539–545|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04046-0|pmid=11229684}}</ref> It was realised that specific cancers (including those of [[mesothelioma]], lung, prostate, bladder, pancreatic, cervical, esophageal, [[melanoma]], and head and neck) are indeed strongly associated with long-term inflammation.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Coussens|first1=LM|last2=Werb|first2=Z|title=Inflammation and cancer|journal=Nature|year=2002|volume=420|issue=6917|pages=860–867|doi=10.1038/nature01322|pmid=12490959|pmc=2803035}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ostrand-Rosenberg|first1=S.|last2=Sinha|first2=P.|title=Myeloid-derived suppressor cells: linking inflammation and cancer|journal=The Journal of Immunology|year=2009|volume=182|issue=8|pages=4499–4506|doi=10.4049/jimmunol.0802740|pmid=19342621|pmc=2810498}}</ref> In addition it became clear that long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as [[aspirin]], reduced cancer risk.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baron|first1=John A.|last2=Sandler|first2=Robert S.|title=Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer prevention|journal=Annual Review of Medicine|year=2000|volume=51|issue=1|pages=511–523|doi=10.1146/annurev.med.51.1.511|pmid=10774479}}</ref> Experiment also shows that drugs that block inflammation simultaneously inhibit tumour formation and development.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mantovani|first1=Alberto|last2=Allavena|first2=Paola|last3=Sica|first3=Antonio|last4=Balkwill|first4=Frances|title=Cancer-related inflammation|journal=Nature|year=2008|volume=454|issue=7203|pages=436–444|doi=10.1038/nature07205|pmid=18650914}}</ref>

====The Kaiser's case====

Virchow was one of the leading physicians to [[Kaiser]] [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick III]], who suffered from [[Laryngeal cancer|cancer of larynx]]. While other physicians such as [[Ernst von Bergmann]] suggested surgical removal of the entire larynx, Virchow was opposed to it because no successful operation of such kind had ever been done. The British surgeon, [[Morell Mackenzie]], performed a [[biopsy]] in 1887 and sent it to Virchow, who identified them as "pachydermia verrucosa laryngis". Virchow affirmed that the tissues were not cancerous, even after several biopsy tests. The Kaiser died on 15 June 1888. The next day a post-mortem examination was performed by Virchow and his assistant. They found that the larynx was extensively damaged due to ulcer, and microscopic examination confirmed [[carcinoma|epidermal carcinoma]]. ''Die Krankheit Kaiser Friedrich des Dritten (The Medical Report of Kaiser Frederick III)'' was published on 11 July under the lead authorship of Bergmann. But Virchow and Mackenzie were omitted, and they were particularly criticised for all their works.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lucas|first1=Charles T|title=Virchow's mistake|url=http://innominatesociety.com/Articles/Virchows%20Mistake.htm|publisher=The Innominate Society of Louisville|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref> The arguments between them turned into a century-long controversy, resulting in Virchow being accused of misdiagnosis and malpractice. But reassessment of the diagnostic history revealed that Virchow was right in his findings and decisions. It is now believed that the Kaiser had hybrid verrucous carcinoma, a very rare form of [[verrucous carcinoma]], and that Virchow had no way of correctly identifying it.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cardesa|first1=Antonio|last2=Zidar|first2=Nina|last3=Alos|first3=Llucia|last4=Nadal|first4=Alfons|last5=Gale|first5=Nina|last6=Klöppel|first6=Günter|title=The Kaiser's cancer revisited: was Virchow totally wrong?|journal=Virchows Archiv|year=2011|volume=458|issue=6|pages=649–657|doi=10.1007/s00428-011-1075-0|pmid=21494762}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ober|first1=WB|title=The case of the Kaiser's cancer|journal=Pathology Annual|year=1970|volume=5|pages=207–216|pmid=4939999}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wagener|first1=D.J.Th.|title=The History of Oncology|year=2009|publisher=Springer|location=Houten|isbn=978-9-0313-6143-4|pages=104–105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53fmwacXu44C&dq}}</ref> (The cancer type was correctly identified only in 1948 by [[Lauren Ackerman]].)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oliva|first1=H|last2=Aguilera|first2=B|title=The harmful biopsies of Kaiser Frederick III|journal=Revista Clinica Espanola|year=1986|volume=178|issue=8|pages=409–411|doi=10.1056/NEJM198503073121022|pmid=3526428|language=Spanish}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Depprich|first1=Rita A.|last2=Handschel|first2=Jörg G.|last3=Fritzemeier|first3=Claus U.|last4=Engers|first4=Rainer|last5=Kübler|first5=Norbert R.|title=Hybrid verrucous carcinoma of the oral cavity: A challenge for the clinician and the pathologist|journal=Oral Oncology Extra|year=2006|volume=42|issue=2|pages=85–90|doi=10.1016/j.ooe.2005.09.006}}</ref>

===Anatomy===
Another significant credit relates to the discovery, made approximately simultaneously by Virchow and [[Charles Emile Troisier]], that an enlarged left supraclavicular 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]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Loh|first1=Keng Yin|last2=Yushak|first2=Abd Wahab|title=Virchow's Node (Troisier's Sign)|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|year=2007|volume=357|issue=3|pages=282–282|doi=10.1056/NEJMicm063871|pmid=17634463}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sundriyal|first1=D.|last2=Kumar|first2=N.|last3=Dubey|first3=S. K.|last4=Walia|first4=M.|title=Virchow's node|journal=BMJ Case Reports|year=2013|volume=2013|issue=pii|pages=bcr2013200749–bcr2013200749|doi=10.1136/bcr-2013-200749|pmid=24031077|pmc=3794256}}</ref>

===Thromboembolism===
Virchow is also known for elucidating the mechanism of pulmonary [[thromboembolism]] (a condition of blood clotting in the blood vessels), coining the terms [[embolism]] and [[thrombosis]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kumar|first1=D. R.|last2=Hanlin|first2=E.|last3=Glurich|first3=I.|last4=Mazza|first4=J. J.|last5=Yale|first5=S. H.|title=Virchow's contribution to the understanding of thrombosis and cellular biology|journal=Clinical Medicine & Research|year=2010|volume=8|issue=3–4|pages=168–172|doi=10.3121/cmr.2009.866|pmid=20739582|pmc=3006583}}</ref> He noted that blood clots in the pulmonary artery originate first from venous thrombi, stating in 1859: "[T]he 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."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=edited by Edward J. Huth, T. Jock|title=Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages|year=2006|publisher=American College of Physicians|location=Philadelphia, US|isbn=978-1-93051-367-9|page=115|edition=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cM8jVGr4qEC&dq}}</ref> Having made these initial discoveries based on autopsies, he proceeded to put forward a scientific hypothesis; that pulmonary thrombi are transported from the veins of the leg and that the blood has the ability to carry such an object. He then proceeded to prove this hypothesis through well-designed experiments, repeated numerous times to consolidate evidence, and with meticulously detailed methodology. This work rebuked a claim made by the eminent French pathologist [[Jean Cruveilhier]] that [[phlebitis]] led to clot development and therefore coagulation was the main consequence of venous inflammation. This was a view held by many before Virchow's work. Related to this research, Virchow described the factors contributing to venous thrombosis, [[Virchow's triad]].<ref name="Bagot2008"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalen|first1=James E.|title=Venous Thromboembolism|year=2003|publisher=Marcel Decker, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8247-5645-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-3Fiw7yE5kC&pg}}</ref>

===Pathology===
Furthermore, Virchow founded the medical fields of [[cellular pathology]] and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His most important work in the field was ''Cellular Pathology'' (''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre'') published in 1858, as a collection of his lectures.<ref name=berlinmuseum/> This is regarded as the basis of modern medical science,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Reese|first1=DM|title=Fundamentals--Rudolf Virchow and modern medicine|journal=The Western Journal of Medicine|year=1998|volume=169|issue=2|pages=105–108|pmid=9735691|pmc=1305179}}</ref> and the "greatest advance which scientific medicine had made since its beginning."<ref name=Knatterud>{{cite book|last1=Knatterud|first1=Mary E.|title=First Do No Harm: Empathy and the Writing of Medical Journal Articles|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-4159-3387-2|pages=43–45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhIv-wHBVs0C&dq}}</ref> His very innovative work may be viewed as between that of [[Giovanni Battista Morgagni|Morgagni]], whose work Virchow studied, and that of [[Paul Ehrlich]], who studied at the Charité while Virchow was developing microscopic pathology there. One of Virchow's major contributions to German medical education was to encourage the use of microscopes by medical students, and he was known for constantly urging his students to "think microscopically". He was the first to establish to link between infectious diseases between humans and animals, for which he coined the term "[[zoonoses]]".<ref name=myron>{{cite journal |year=2008 |last1=Schultz |first1=Myron |title=Rudolf Virchow |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=1480–1481 |journal=Emerg Infect Dis|doi=10.3201/eid1409.086672|pmc=2603088}}</ref> He also introduced scientific terms such as "[[chromatin]]", "[[agenesis]]", "[[parenchyma]]", "[[osteoid]]", "[[amyloid degeneration]]", and "[[spina bifida]]".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Titford|first1=M.|title=Rudolf Virchow: Cellular Pathologist|journal=Laboratory Medicine|date=21 April 2010|volume=41|issue=5|pages=311–312|doi=10.1309/LM3GYQTY79CPYLBI}}</ref> His concept on pathology directly opposed humourism, an ancient medical dogma that diseases were due to imbalanced body fluids, hypothetically called humours, that still pervaded.<ref name=etzioni/>

====Parasitology====
Virchow worked out the life cycle of a roundworm ''[[Trichinella spiralis]]''. Virchow noticed a mass of circular white flecks in the muscle of dog and human cadaver, similar to those described by [[Richard Owen]] in 1835. He confirmed through microscopic observation that the white particles were indeed the larvae of roundworms, being curled up in the muscle tissue. Rudolph Leukart found that these tiny worms could develop into adult roundworms in the intestine of a dog. He correctly asserted that these worms could also cause human [[helminthiasis]]. Virchow further demonstrated that if the infected meat is first heated to 137&nbsp;°F for 10 minutes, the worms could not infect dogs or humans.<ref>{{cite web|title=Discovery of Life Cycle|url=http://www.trichinella.org/history_2.htm|website=Trichinella.org|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref> He established that human infection occurs through contaminated pork. This directly led to the importance of meat inspection, which was first adopted in Berlin.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nöckler|first1=K|title=Current status of the discussion on the certification of so-called "Trichinella-free areas"|journal=Berliner und Munchener Tierarztliche Wochenschrift|date=2000|volume=113|issue=4|pages=134–138|pmid=10816912}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Saunders|first1=L. Z.|title=Virchow's Contributions to Veterinary Medicine: Celebrated Then, Forgotten Now|journal=Veterinary Pathology|date=2000|volume=37|issue=3|pages=199–207|doi=10.1354/vp.37-3-199|pmid=10810984}}</ref>

===Autopsy===
Virchow was the first to develop a systematic method of [[autopsy]], based on his knowledge of cellular pathology. The modern autopsy still constitute his techniques.<ref>{{cite web|title=Autopsy: History of autopsy|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45129/autopsy|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|accessdate=26 November 2014}}</ref> His first most significant autopsy was on a 50-year-old woman in 1845. He found from the body an unusual amount of white blood cells, and gave a detailed description in 1847 and named the condition as ''leukämie''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902)|journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians|year=1975|volume=25|issue=2|pages=91–92|doi=10.3322/canjclin.25.2.91}}</ref> One on his autopsies in 1857 was the first description of [[Vertebral compression fracture|vertebral disc rupture]].<ref name=weller21/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maurice-Williams|first1=R.S.|title=Spinal Degenerative Disease|year=2013|publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann|isbn=978-1-4831-9340-3|page=2|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=PrzYBAAAQBAJ&dq}}</ref> His autopsy on a baby in 1856 was the first description of congenital pulmonary [[lymphangiectasia]] (the name given by K. M. Laurence a century later), a rare and fatal disease of lung.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hwang|first1=Joon Ho|last2=Kim|first2=Joo Heon|last3=Hwang|first3=Jung Ju|last4=Kim|first4=Kyu Soon|last5=Kim|first5=Seung Yeon|title=Pneumonectomy case in a newborn with congenital pulmonary lymphangiectasia|journal=Journal of Korean Medical Science|year=2014|volume=29|issue=4|pages=609–13|doi=10.3346/jkms.2014.29.4.609|pmid=24753713|pmc=3991809}}</ref> From his experience of post-mortem examinations of a number of cadaver, he published his method in a small book in 1876.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Saukko|first1=Pekka J|last2=Pollak|first2=Stefan|chapter=Autopsy|title=Wiley Encyclopedia of Forensic Science|year=2009|volume=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.|doi=10.1002/9780470061589.fsa036}}</ref> His book was the first to describe the techniques of autopsy specifically to examine abnormalities in organs, and retain important tissues for further examination and demonstration. Unlike any other procedure before, he practiced complete surgery of all body parts with body organs dissected one by one. This has become the standard method.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkbeiner|first1=Walter E|last2=Ursell|first2=Philip C|last3=Davis|first3=Richard L|title=Autopsy Pathology: A Manual and Atlas|year=2009|publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=978-1-4160-5453-5|page=6|edition=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KiGOSz9eGeUC&dq}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Skowronek|first1=R|last2=Chowaniec|first2=C|title=The evolution of autopsy technique--from Virchow to Virtopsy|journal=Archiwum Medycyny Sadowej i Kryminologii|year=2010|volume=60|issue=1|pages=48–54|pmid=21180108}}</ref>

====Ochronosis====

Virchow discovered the clinical syndrome which he called [[ochronosis]], a [[metabolic disorder]] in which a patient accumulates [[homogentisic acid]] in [[connective tissue]]s and which is indicated by discolouration under the microscope. He found the unusual symptom from an autopsy of the corpse of a 67-year-old man on 8 May 1884. This was the first time this abnormal disease affecting cartilage and connective tissue was observed and analysed. His description and coining of the name appeared in the October 1866 issue of ''Vichows Archiv''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Virchow|first1=RL|title=Rudolph Virchow on ochronosis.1866.|journal=Arthritis and rheumatism|year=1966|origyear=1866|volume=9|issue=1|pages=66–71|pmid=4952902|doi=10.1002/art.1780090108}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Benedek|first1=Thomas G.|title=Rudolph virchow on ochronosis|journal=Arthritis & Rheumatism|year=1966|volume=9|issue=1|pages=66–71|doi=10.1002/art.1780090108|pmid=4952902}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilke|first1=Andreas|last2=Steverding|first2=Dietmar|title=Ochronosis as an unusual cause of valvular defect: a case report|journal=Journal of Medical Case Reports|year=2009|volume=3|issue=1|pages=9302|doi=10.1186/1752-1947-3-9302|pmid=20062791|pmc=2803825}}</ref>

===Forensic===

Virchow was the first to analyse hair in [[criminal investigation]], and made the first forensic report on it in 1861.<ref>{{cite book|author=Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, Federal Judicial Center, National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Committee on the Development of the Third Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence|title=Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence|publisher=National Academies Press|year=2011|location=US|isbn=978-0-3092-1425-4|pages=112|edition=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yVUMTYJPSaMC&pg}}</ref> He was called as an expert witness in a murder case, and he used hair samples collected from the victim. He became the first to recognise the limitation of hair as a conclusive evidence. He found that hairs can be different in an individual, and individual hair has characteristic features, and that hairs from different individuals can be strikingly similar. He concluded that evidence based on hair analysis is inconclusive.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Inman|first1=Keith|last2=Rudin|first2=Norah|title=Principles and Practice of Criminalistics the Profession of Forensic Science|date=2000|publisher=CRC Press|location=Hoboken|isbn=9781420036930|page=50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OTqqqGooccC&dq}}</ref> His testimony runs:
{{Quote|[T]he hairs found on the defendant do not possess any so pronounced peculiarities or individualities [so] that no one with certainty has the right to assert that they must have originated from the head of the victim.<ref name=oien />}}

===Anthropology and prehistory biology===

Virchow developed an interest in anthropology in 1865, when he discovered pile dwellings in northern Germany. In 1869, he co-founded the German Anthropological Association. In 1870 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. He edited its journal ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'' (''Journal of Ethnology''), which he founded in 1866, until his death, and was several times (at least fifteen times) its president.<ref name=Buikstra/> In 1870, he led a major excavation of the hill forts in Pomerania. He also excavated wall mounds in [[Wöllstein|W]]ö[[Wöllstein|llstein]] in 1875 with [[Robert Koch]], whose paper he edited on the subject.<ref name=weisenberg/> For his contributions in German archaeology, the [[Rudolf Virchow lecture]] is held annually in his honour. He made field trips to [[Asia Minor]], the [[Caucasus]], [[Egypt]], [[Nubia]], and other places, sometimes in the company of [[Heinrich Schliemann]]. His 1879 journey to the site of [[Troy]] is described in ''Beiträge zur Landeskunde in Troas'' ("Contributions to the knowledge of the landscape in Troy", 1879) and ''Alttrojanische Gräber und Schädel'' ("Old Trojan graves and skulls", 1882).<ref name=americana/><ref>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Virchow, Rudolf}}</ref>

==== Anti-Darwinism ====
Virchow was an opponent of [[Natural selection|Darwin's theory of evolution]],<ref>Hodgson, Geoffrey Martin (2006). ''Economics in the Shadows of Darwin and Marx''. Edward Elgar Publishing., p. 14 {{ISBN|9781781007563}}</ref><ref>Vucinich, Alexanderm (1988), ''Darwin in Russian Thought''. University of California Press. p. 4 {{ISBN|9780520062832}}</ref> and particularly skeptical of the emergent thesis of [[human evolution]].<ref>Robert Bernasconi (2003). ''Race and Anthropology: De la pluralité des races humaines''. Thoemmes. p. XII</ref><ref>Ian Tattersall (1995). ''The Fossil Trail''. Oxford paperbacks. Oxford University Press, p. 22 {{ISBN|9780195109818}}</ref> On 22 September 1877, he delivered a public address entitled ''"The Freedom of Science in the Modern State"'' before the Congress of German Naturalist and Physicians in Munich. There he spoke against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools, arguing that it was as yet an unproven hypothesis that lacked empirical foundations and that, therefore, its teaching would negatively affect scientific studies.<ref>Kelly, Alfred (1981). ''Descent of Darwin: The Popularization of Darwinism in Germany, 1860-1914''. UNC Press Books. See: Chapter 4: "Darwinism and the schools". {{ISBN|9781469610139}}</ref><ref>Kuklick, Henrika (2009). ''New History of Anthropology''. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 86-87</ref> [[Ernst Haeckel]], who had been Virchow's student, later reported that his former professor said that "it is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes...not caring in the least that now almost all experts of good judgment hold the opposite conviction."<ref>[[Smithsonian Institution]] (1899). ''Board of Regents Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution''. Board of Regents. p. 472</ref>

Virchow became one of the leading opponents on the debate over the authenticity of [[Neanderthal]], discovered in 1856, as distinct species and ancestral to modern humans. He himself examined the [[Neanderthal 1|original fossil]] in 1872, and presented his observations before the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte.<ref name=Buikstra/> He stated that the Neanderthal had not been a primitive form of human, but an abnormal human being, who, judging by the shape of his skull, had been injured and deformed, and considering the unusual shape of his bones, had been [[Arthritis|arthritic]], [[Rickets|rickety]] and feeble.<ref>Wendt, H. 1960. ''Tras la huellas de Adán'', 3ª edición. Editorial Noguer, Barcelona-México, 566 pp.</ref><ref>Adam Kupler (1996). ''The Chosen Primate''. Harvard University Press. p. 38 {{ISBN|9780674128262}}</ref><ref>De Paolo, 'Charles (2002); ''Human Prehistory in Fiction''. McFarland. p. 49 {{ISBN|9780786483297}}</ref> With such an authority, the fossil was rejected as new species. With this reasoning, Virchow "judged Darwin an ignoramus and Haeckel a fool and was loud and frequent in the publication of these judgments."<ref>American Society of Medical History (1927). ''Medical Life, Volume 34''. Historico-Medico Press. p. 492</ref>

On 22 September 1877, at the Fiftieth Conference of the German Association of Naturalists and Physician held in Munich, Haeckel pleaded for introducing evolution in the public school curricula, and tried to dissuade Darwinism from social Darwinism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Weiss|first1=Sheila Faith|title=Race Hygiene and National Efficiency: The Eugenics of Wilhelm Schallmayer|year=1987|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-05823-1|pages=67, 179|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bl6qx7yvaJ4C&pg}}</ref> His campaign was because of Herman Müller, a school teacher who was banned because of his teaching a year earlier on the inanimate origin of life from carbon. This resulted in prolonged public debate with Virchow. A few days later Virchow responded that Darwinism was only a hypothesis, and morally dangerous to students. This severe criticism of Darwinism was immediately taken up by the London ''[[The Times|Times]]'', from which further debates erupted among English scholars. Haeckel wrote his arguments in the October issue of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' titled "The Present Position of Evolution Theory", to which Virchow responded in the next issue with an article "The Liberty of Science in the Modern State".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Porter|first1=Theodore M.|title=Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age|year=2006|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton|isbn=978-1-400-83570-6|page=36|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=YFwckVLO-9UC&dq}}</ref> The debate made Haeckel write a full book ''Freedom in Science and Teaching'' in 1879. That year the issue was discussed in the [[Prussian House of Representatives]] and the verdict was in favour of Virchow. In 1882 the Prussian education policy officially excluded natural history in schools.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Weindling|first1=Paul|title=Health, Race and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945|year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521423977|page=43|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=9SlB2qcb0NIC&dq}}</ref>

Years later, the noted German physician [[Carl Ludwig Schleich]], would recall a conversation he held with Virchow, who was a close friend of him: "...On to the subject of [[Darwinism]]. "I don't believe in all this," Virchow told me. "if I lie on my sofa and blow the possibilities away from me, as another man may blow the smoke of his cigar, I can, of course, sympathize with such dreams. But they don't stand the test of knowledge. Haeckel is a fool. That will be apparent one day. As far as that goes, if anything like transmutation did occur it could only happen in the course of pathological degeneration!".<ref>Schleich, Carl Ludwig (1936). ''Those were good days'', p. 159. (Note: this conversation was taken from Schleich's memoirs ''Besonnte Vergangenheit'' (1922), and translated into English by Bernard Miall)</ref>

Virchow's ultimate opinion about evolution was reported a year before he died; in his own words:
{{Quote|The intermediate form is unimaginable save in a dream... We cannot teach or consent that it is an achievement that man descended from the ape or other animal.|''Homiletic Review'', January, (1901)<ref>Ronald L. Numbers (1995). ''Antievolutionism Before World War I'': Volume 1 of Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Taylor & Francis. p. 101. {{ISBN|9780815318026}}</ref><ref>Patterson, Alexander (1903). ''The Other Side of Evolution'', Winona Publishing Company, p.79</ref>}}

Virchow's antievolutionism, like that of [[Albert von Kölliker]] and [[Thomas Brown (philosopher)|Thomas Brown]], did not come from religion, since he was not a believer.<ref name=glick/>

====Anti-racism====

Virchow believed that Haeckel's monist propagation of [[social darwinism]] was in its nature politically dangerous and [[anti-democratic]], and he also criticized it because he saw it as related to the emergent socialist movement in Germany, ideas about cultural superiority,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hodge|first1=edited by Jonathan|last2=Radick|first2=Gregory|title=The Cambridge Companion to Darwin|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521711845|page=238|edition=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hawkins|first1=Mike|title=Social Darwinism in European and American thought, 1860-1945 : Nature as Model and Nature as Threat|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521574341|page=138|edition=Reprinted}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Randy|last2=Decker,|first2=Mark|last3=Cotner|first3=Sehoya|title=Chronology of the Evolution-creationism Controversy|date=2010|publisher=Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|isbn=9780313362873|pages=121–122}}</ref> and militarism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Regal|first1=Brian|title=Human Evolution : A Guide to Debates|date=2004|publisher=ABC-Clio|location=Santa Barbara, Calif|isbn=9781851094189}}</ref> In 1885, he launched a study of [[craniometry]], which gave surprising results contradictory to contemporary [[scientific racism|scientific racist]] theories on the "[[Aryan race]]", leading him to denounce the "[[Nordic race|Nordic]] mysticism" at the 1885 Anthropology Congress in [[Karlsruhe]]. Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated in the same congress that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races", further declaring that the "results of craniology" led to a "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race" on others.<ref>Andrea Orsucci, [http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/eng/index.html "Ariani, indogermani, stirpi mediterranee: aspetti del dibattito sulle razze europee (1870–1914)"], ''Cromohs'', 1998 {{it icon}}</ref> He analysed the hair, skin, and eye colour of 6,758,827 schoolchildren to identify the Jews and Aryans. His findings, published in 1886 and concluding that there could be neither a Jewish nor a German race, were regarded as a blow to anti-Semitism and the existence of an "Aryan race".<ref name=silberstein/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zimmerman|first1=Andrew|title=Anti-Semitism as Skill: Rudolf Virchow's Schulstatistik and the Racial Composition of Germany|journal=Central European History|date=2008|volume=32|issue=4|pages=409–429|doi=10.1017/S0008938900021762|jstor=4546903}}</ref>

=== Anti-germ theory of diseases ===

Virchow did not believe in the [[germ theory of diseases]], as advocated by [[Louis Pasteur]] and [[Robert Koch]]. He proposed that diseases came from abnormal activities inside the cells, not from outside pathogens.<ref name=myron/> He believed that epidemics were social in origin, and the way to combat epidemics was political, not medical. He regarded germ theory as hindrance to prevention and cure. He considered social factors such as poverty as major cause of diseases.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow, 1821–1902|url=http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/virchow.html|publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College|accessdate=July 8, 2014}}</ref> He even attacked Koch's and [[Ignaz Semmelweis]]' policy of handwashing as an antiseptic practice.<ref name=etzioni/> He postulated that germs were only using infected organs as habitats, but they were not the cause, and stated, "If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat: diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of diseased tissue".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Berkowsky|first1=Bruce|title=The Germ Theory: The Traditional Naturopathic Perspective - Part I|url=http://naturalhealthscience.com/article_Natures-Therapies_090114.php|website=Natural Health Science|publisher=Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc.|accessdate=8 July 2014}}</ref>

==Politics and social medicine==
[[File:Rudolf Virchow NLM4.jpg|thumb|left|Rudolf Virchow]]
More than a laboratory physician, Virchow was an impassioned advocate for social and political reform. His ideology involved social inequality as the cause of diseases that requires political actions,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mackenbach|first1=J P|title=Politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale: reflections on public health's biggest idea|journal=Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health|date=2009|volume=63|issue=3|pages=181–184|doi=10.1136/jech.2008.077032|pmid=19052033}}</ref> stating:

<blockquote>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... Science for its own sake usually means nothing more than science for the sake of the people who happen to be pursuing it. Knowledge which is unable to support action is not genuine – and how unsure is activity without understanding... If medicine is to fulfill her great task, then she must enter the political and social life... The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wittern-Sterzel|first1=R|title=Politics is nothing else than large scale medicine"--Rudolf Virchow and his role in the development of social medicine|journal=Verhandlungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Pathologie|year=2003|volume=87|pages=150–157|pmid=16888907}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=J R A|title=Virchow misquoted, part‐quoted, and the real McCoy|journal=Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health|year=2006|volume=60|issue=8|page=671|pmc=2588080}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow on Pathology Education|url=http://www.pathguy.com/virchow.htm|website=The Pathology Guy|accessdate=28 November 2014}}</ref> </blockquote>

Virchow actively worked for social change to fight poverty and diseases. His method involves pathological observations and statistical analyses. He called this new field of social medicine a "[[social science]]". His most important influences could be noted in Latin America, where his disciples introduced his social medicine.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Porter|first1=Dorothy|title=How did social medicine evolve, and where is it heading?|journal=PLoS Medicine|date=2006|volume=3|issue=10|pages=e399|doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030399|pmid=17076552|pmc=1621092}}</ref> For example, his student [[Max Westenhöfer]] became Director of Pathology at the medical school of the [[University of Chile]], becoming the most influential advocate. One of Westenhöfer's students, [[Salvador Allende]], through social and political activities based on Virchow's doctrine, became the 29th [[President of Chile]] (1970-1973).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Waitzkin|first1=H|last2=Iriart|first2=C|last3=Estrada|first3=A|last4=Lamadrid|first4=S|title=Social medicine then and now: lessons from Latin America|journal=American Journal of Public Health|date=2001|volume=91|issue=10|pages=1592–601|pmid=11574316|pmc=1446835|doi=10.2105/ajph.91.10.1592}}</ref>

Virchow made himself known as a pronounced democrat in the [[Revolutions of 1848 in Germany|year of revolutions in Germany (1848)]]. His political views are evident in his ''Report on the Typhus Outbreak of Upper Silesia'', where he states 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, which could only be achieved by "full and unlimited democracy" and "education, [[:wikt:freedom|freedom]] and prosperity".<ref name=brown2006/>

These radical statements and his minor part in the revolution caused the government to remove him (1849) from his position, although within a year he was reinstated as [[prosector]] 'on probation'. Prosector was a secondary position in the hospital. This secondary position in Berlin convinced him to accept the chair of pathological anatomy at the medical school in the provincial town of Würzburg, where he continued his scientific research. Six years later, he had attained fame in scientific and medical circles, and was reinstated at Charité Hospital.<ref name="Bagot2008"/>

In 1859, he became a member of the Municipal Council of Berlin and began his career as a civic reformer. Elected to the Prussian Diet in 1862, he became leader of the Radical or Progressive party; and from 1880 to 1893, he was a member of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]].<ref name=americana/> He worked to improve the health-care conditions for Berlin citizens, especially by working towards modern water and sewer systems. Virchow is credited as a founder of [[social medicine]], frequently focusing on the fact that disease is never purely biological, but often socially derived or spread,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2105/AJPH.96.12.2102|title=Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia|year=2006|last1=Virchow|first1=Rudolf Carl|journal=American Journal of Public Health
|volume=96|issue=12|pages=2102–5|pmid=17123938|pmc=1698167 }}</ref> and of anthropology.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/champions/paul_farmer.html Rx for Survival. Global Health Champions. Paul Farmer, MD, PhD | PBS]. www.pbs.org</ref>

===The Sausage Duel===

As a cofounder and member of the liberal party (''[[Deutsche Fortschrittspartei]]'') he was a leading political antagonist of [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]]. He was opposed to Bismarck’s excessive military budget, which angered Bismarck sufficiently to challenge Virchow to a duel in 1865.<ref name=americana>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Virchow, Rudolf|year=1920}}</ref> Of the two versions, one has Virchow declining because he considered dueling an uncivilized way to solve a conflict. The second has passed into legend, but was well documented in the contemporary scientific literature. It has Virchow, having been the challenged and therefore entitled to choose the weapons, selecting two pork sausages, a normal sausage and another one, loaded with ''[[Trichinella]]'' larvae. His challenger declined the proposition as risky.<ref name=myron/><ref>{{cite book |last=Isaac Asimov |title=Treasury of Humor |publisher=Mariner Books |year=1991 |isbn= 978-0-395-57226-9 |page= 202}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=2008 |last1=Cardiff |first1=Robert D |last2=Ward |first2=Jerrold M |last3=Barthold |first3=Stephen W |doi=10.1038/labinvest.3700695|title='One medicine—one pathology': are veterinary and human pathology prepared? |volume=88 |pages=18–26|journal=Laboratory Investigation |issue=1}}</ref>

===''Kulturkampf''===
Virchow supported Bismarck in an attempt to reduce the political and social influence of the Catholic Church, between 1871 and 1887.<ref name="Progs">"This anti-Catholic crusade was also taken up by the Progressives, especially Rudolf Virchow, though Richter himself was tepid in his occasional support." [https://www.mises.org/story/1787 Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th century] by Ralph Raico</ref> He remarked that the movement was acquiring "the character of a great struggle in the interest of humanity". He called it ''[[Kulturkampf]]'' ("culture struggle")<ref name=kulturkampf/> during the discussion of [[Paul Ludwig Falk|Falk]]'s May Laws (''Maigesetze'').<ref name="virchrow">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 [http://www.hermes-press.com/triumph_civ.htm 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" [http://www.freedict.co.uk/words/k/kulturkampf.php Kulturkampf] in freedict.co.uk</ref> Virchow was respected in Masonic circles,<ref name="Virchowrespected">"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|JOSE RIZAL]] AS A MASON by AUSTIN CRAIG, The Builder Magazine, [http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/the_builder_1916_august.htm August 1916 – Volume II – Number 8]</ref> and according to one source<ref name="VirchowMason">"It was a heady atmosphere for the young Brother, and Masons in Germany, Dr. Rudolf Virchow and Dr. [[Fedor Jagor]], were instrumental in his becoming a member of the Berlin Ethnological and Anthropological Societies." From [http://srjarchives.tripod.com/1998-10/PEARSON.HTM Dimasalang: The Masonic Life Of Dr. Jose P. Rizal By Reynold S. Fajardo, 33°] by Fred Lamar Pearson, Scottish Rite Journal, October 1998</ref> may have been a [[freemason]], though no official record of this has been found.

==Family==
[[File:Rudolf and Rose Virchow 1851.jpg|thumb|Rudolf and Rose Virchow in 1851]]
[[File:Virchow, Rudolf, Ernst und Adele.jpg|thumb|Virchow with his son Ernst and daughter Adele]]

On August 24, 1850 in Berlin, Virchow married Ferdinande Rosalie Mayer (Rose Virchow; 29 February 1832 – 21 February 1913), a liberal's daughter. They had three sons and three daughters:<ref name="Santos">{{cite book|author=Marco Steinert Santos|title=Virchow: medicina, ciência e sociedade no seu tempo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RM9Jr6Mz5rUC&pg=PA140|accessdate=7 May 2012|publisher=Imprensa da Univ. de Coimbra|isbn=978-989-8074-45-4|pages=140–}}</ref>
* Karl Virchow (1 August 1851 – 21 September 1912) – a chemist
* [[Hans Virchow]] (10 September 1852 – 7 April 1940) – a prominent anatomist
* Adele Virchow (1 October 1855 – 18 May 1955) – the wife of Rudolf Henning, a prominent professor of [[German studies]]
* Ernst Virchow (24 January 1858 – 5 April 1942)
* Marie Virchow (29 June 1866 – 23 October 1951) – the wife of [[Carl Rabl]], a prominent Austrian anatomist
* Hanna Elisabeth Maria Virchow (10 May 1873 – 28 November 1963)

==Death==
[[File:Grab Rudolf Virchow.jpg|thumb|The tomb of Rudolf and Rose Virchow at Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof]]
Virchow broke his thigh bone on 4 January 1902, jumping off a running streetcar while exiting the [[electric tram]]<nowiki/>way. Although he anticipated full recovery, the fractured [[femur]] never healed, and restricted his physical activity. His health gradually deteriorated and he died of [[heart failure]] after eight months, on 5 September 1902, in Berlin.<ref name=weisenberg/><ref>{{cite news |title= Prof. Virchow is Dead. Famous Scientist's Long Illness Ended Yesterday |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1FF93A591B728DDDAF0894D1405B828CF1D3 |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date= 5 September 1902|accessdate=4 August 2012 }}</ref> A state funeral was held on 9 September in the Assembly Room of the Magistracy in the [[Berlin Town Hall]], which was decorated with laurels, palms and flowers. He was buried in the [[Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof]] in [[Schöneberg]], Berlin.<ref name=funeral>{{cite news |title=Prof. Virchow's Funeral. Distinguished Scholars, Scientists, and Doctors in the Throng That Attends the Ceremonies in Berlin |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0F15FF3F5F12738DDDA90994D1405B828CF1D3 |newspaper=New York Times|date= 9 September 1902|accessdate=4 August 2012 }}</ref> His tomb was shared by his wife on 21 February 1913.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow tomb|url=http://himetop.wikidot.com/rudolf-virchow-tomb|work=HimeTop|accessdate=28 November 2014}}</ref>

==Honours and legacy==
* In June 1859, Virchow was elected to Berlin Chamber of Representatives.<ref name=boak21/>
* In 1860, he was elected official Member of the Königliche Wissenschaftliche Deputation für das Medizinalwesen (Royal Scientific Board for Medical Affairs).<ref name=berlinmuseum/>
* In 1861, he was elected foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].
* In March 1862, he was elected to the [[Prussian House of Representatives]].<ref name=berlinmuseum/>
* In 1873, he was elected to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]]. He declined to be ennobled as "von Virchow," he was nonetheless designated Geheimrat ("privy councillor") in 1894.<ref name=whonmaedit/>
* In 1880, he was elected member of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag of the German Empire]].
* In 1881, Rudolf-Virchow-Foundation was established on the occasion of his 60th birthday.<ref name=Buikstra/>
* In 1892, he was appointed Rector of the Berlin University.
* In 1892, he was awarded the British [[Royal Society]]'s [[Copley Medal]].
* The [[Rudolf Virchow Center]], a biomedical research center in the University of Würzburg was established in January 2002.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rudolf Virchow Center|url=http://www.rudolf-virchow-zentrum.de/en/rudolf-virchow-center.html|publisher=The Rudolf Virchow Center|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref>
* [[Rudolf Virchow Award]] is given by the [[Society for Medical Anthropology]] for research achievements in medical anthropology.<ref>{{cite web|title=Call for Submissions: Rudolf Virchow Awards|url=http://www.medanthro.net/call-for-submissions-rudolf-virchow-awards/|publisher=Society for Medical Anthropology|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref>
* [[Rudolf Virchow lecture]], an annual public lecture, is organised by the [[Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum|Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz]], for eminent scientists in the field of palaeolithic archaeology.
* Rudolf Virchow Medical Society is based in New York, and offers Rudolf Virchow Medal.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow Medal|url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/awards/1962h.8.html|publisher=Oregon State University Libraries' Special Collections & Archives Research Center|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Berlin-Wedding Virchow-Klinikum 06 Herzzentrum.jpg|thumb|235px|right|Hospital - Campus Virchow Klinikum, Cardiology Center]]
* Campus Virchow Klinikum is named for the campus of Charité hospital.
* The [[Rudolf Virchow Monument]], a muscular limestone statue, was erected in 1910 at Karlplatz in Berlin.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow monument|url=http://himetop.wikidot.com/rudolf-virchow-monument|work=HimeTop|accessdate=28 November 2014}}</ref>
* Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus was built in 1915 in Berlin, jointly honouring Virchow and [[Bernhard von Langenbeck]]. Originally a medical centre, the building is now used as conference centre of the German Surgical Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie) and the Berlin Medical Association (BMG-Berliner Medizinische Gesellschaft).<ref>{{cite web|title=Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus|url=http://www.langenbeck-virchow-haus.de|language=German|accessdate=28 November 2014}}</ref>
* The Rudolf Virchow Study Center is instituted by the [[European University Viadrina]] for compiling of the complete works of Virchow.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow Study Center: Rudolf Virchow and Transcultural Health Sciences|url=http://www.europa-uni.de/en/forschung/institut/institut_intrag/Forschung/Forschungsstelle_R_V/index.html|publisher=European University Viadrina|accessdate=29 November 2014}}</ref>
* [[Virchow Hill]] in [[Antarctica]] is named after Rudolf Virchow.<ref>[https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=111780 Virchow Hill.] SCAR [[Composite Antarctic Gazetteer]]</ref>

===Eponymous medical terms===
{{columns-list|2|
* '''Virchow's angle''', the angle between the nasobasilar line and the nasosubnasal line
* '''Virchow's cell''', a macrophage in [[Hansen's disease]]
* '''Virchow's cell theory''', ''omnis cellula e cellula'' – every living cell comes from another living cell
* '''Virchow's concept of pathology''', comparison of diseases common to humans and animals
* '''Virchow's disease''', [[leontiasis ossea]], now recognized as a symptom rather than a disease
* '''Virchow's gland''', [[Virchow's node]]
* '''Virchow's Law''', during [[craniosynostosis]], skull growth is restricted to a plane perpendicular to the affected, prematurely fused suture and is enhanced in a plane parallel to it.
* '''Virchow's line''', a line from the root of the nose to the [[Lambda (anatomy)|lambda]]
* '''Virchow's metamorphosis''', [[lipomatosis]] in the [[heart]] and [[salivary glands]]
* '''Virchow's method of autopsy''', a method of autopsy where each organ is taken out one by one
* '''[[Virchow's node]]''', the presence of metastatic cancer in a lymph node in the supraclavicular fossa (root of the neck left of the midline), also known as [[Troisier's sign]]
* '''Virchow's psammoma''', [[Psammoma body|psammoma bodies]] in [[meningioma]]s
* '''[[Virchow–Robin spaces]]''', enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS) (often only potential) that surround blood vessels for a short distance as they enter the brain
* '''[[Virchow–Seckel syndrome]]''', a very rare disease also known as "bird-headed dwarfism"
* '''Virchow skull breaker''', a [[chisel]]-like device used to separate the [[calvaria (skull)|calvaria]] from the rest of the [[skull]] to expose the [[brain]] in [[autopsy|autopsies]]
* '''[[Virchow's triad]]''', the classic factors which precipitate venous thrombus formation: endothelial dysfunction or injury, hemodynamic changes and hypercoagulability
}}

==Works==
He was a very prolific writer. Some of his works are:
* ''Mittheilungen über die in Oberschlesien herrschende Typhus-Epidemie'' (1848)
* ''Vorlesungen über Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologischer und pathologischer Gewebelehre'', his chief work (1859): The fourth edition of this work formed the first volume of ''Vorlesungen über Pathologie'' below.
* ''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre.'' (1858; English translation, 1860) [http://de.wikiversity.org/wiki/Virchow_(1859)]
* ''Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie'', prepared in collaboration with others (1854–76)
* ''Vorlesungen über Pathologie'' (1862–72)
* ''Die krankhaften Geschwülste'' (1863–67)
* ''Ueber den Hungertyphus'' (1868)
* ''Ueber einige Merkmale niederer Menschenrassen am Schädel'' (1875)
* ''Beiträge zur physischen Anthropologie der Deutschen'' (1876)
* ''Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im Modernen Staat'' (1877)
* ''Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der offentlichen Medizin und der Seuchenlehre'' (1879)
* ''Gegen den Antisemitismus'' (1880)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Becher (1891). ''Rudolf Virchow'', Berlin.
* Pagel, J. L. (1906). ''Rudolf Virchow'', Leipzig.
* Ackerknecht, Erwin H. (1953) ''Rudolf Virchow: Doctor, Statesman, Anthropologist'', Madison.
* Virchow, RLK (1978). ''Cellular pathology''. 1859 special ed., 204–207 John Churchill London, UK.
* {{gutenberg|no=10770|name=The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes by Tomás de Comyn}}, available at [[Project Gutenburg]] (co-authored by Virchow with Tomás Comyn, Fedor Jagor, and Chas Wilkes)
* Virchow, Rudolf (1870). Menschen- und Affenschadeh Vortrag gehalten am 18. Febr. 1869 im Saale des Berliner Handwerkervereins. Berlin: Luderitz,
* {{cite journal | author = Eisenberg L. | authorlink = Leon Eisenberg | year = 1986 | title = Rudolf Virchow: the physician as politician | journal = Medicine and War | volume = 2 | issue = 4| pages = 243–250 | doi=10.1080/07488008608408712}}
* {{cite book|last1=Rather|first1=L. J.|title=A Commentary on the Medical Writings of Rudolf Virchow: Based on Schwalbe's Virchow-Bibliographie, 1843-1901|year=1990|publisher=Norman Publishing|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0-9304-0519-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s32pGCjcq68C&dq}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Rudolf Virchow}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Virchow,+Rudolf | name=Rudolf Virchow}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Rudolf Virchow}}
* Becher, [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10770|The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes], available at [[Project Gutenburg]] (co-authored by Virchow with Tomás Comyn, Fedor Jagor, and Chas Wilkes)
* [http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/data?id=per149 Short biography and bibliography] in the [[Virtual Laboratory]] of the [[Max Planck Institute for the History of Science]]
* [http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/lefa/Virchow.html Students and Publications of Virchow]
* A biography of Virchow by the [http://www.aans.org/education/journal/neurosurgical/June06/20-6-1-0979.pdf American Association of Neurological Surgeons] that deals with his early work in Cerebrovascular Pathology
* An English translation of the complete 1848 Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia is available in the February 2006 edition of the journal [http://www.socialmedicine.info Social Medicine]
* [http://himetop.wikidot.com/rudolf-virchow Some places and memories related to Rudolf Virchow]
* [http://spark.nautil.us/feature/127/my-personal-hero-robert-sapolsky-on-rudolf-virchow Article on Rudolf Virchow in Nautilus] retrieved on January 28, 2017.

{{Copley Medallists 1851-1900}}
{{Historical definitions of race |state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virchow, Rudolf}}
[[Category:1821 births]]
[[Category:1902 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Świdwin]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Pomerania]]
[[Category:German Protestants]]
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[[Category:Members of the Prussian House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag of the German Empire]]
[[Category:German agnostics]]
[[Category:German anthropologists]]
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[[Category:German pathologists]]
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[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin faculty]]
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[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
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[[Category:Rudolf Virchow| ]]