TEXT C Rudolf Virchow was among
the greatest minds in medicine in the 19th century. As a result of his hard work
and determination, great strides were made in the fields of pathological and
physiological medicine. Virchow attended Friederich Institute where he studied
to become a physician. Throughout his studies, Virchow performed a plethora of
research disproving that phlebitis was the cause of most diseases. Once he
graduated from Friederich Institute, Virchow went on to study at the University
of Berlin where he became a medical doctor in 1843. He was championed as the
founder of cellular pathology because of his extensive research that disease is
created and reproduced at the cellular level of the body.
Virchow also took on the role of educator. He was involved in opening a
school of nursing in Friederichshain Hospital and designed the new sewer system
for the city of Berlin. In 1856, he was appointed as Chair of the Pathological
Anatomy Department at the University of Berlin and the new Pathology Institute
opened there as well. One of his greatest accomplishments in his career happened
in 1874, when he introduced the standardized technique to perform
autopsies. Virchow was extremely active in his community and bad
a passion for life-long learning. He was elected to the Berlin City Council for
exclusive work in the areas of public health. He reported that the poor housing
conditions, declining milk supply and sepsis found throughout the area
contributed to the high infant mortality rate in the area. In his opinion the
Government was not living up to his expectations of taking care of the people of
Germany. He had regularly authored articles through his journal,
Medicinische Reform, demanding social change from the German government,
focusing largely on the idea that the profession of physicians should be unified
and that medical education should have more training in clinical medicine
related to diagnosis based on physiologic medicine. Basically, he was a
forerunner in the field of primary prevention of disease: treating the symptoms
before the disease set into the body. He campaigned for drastic
social reform and bad also contributed to the development of anthropology as a
modern science and in 1869 was a founder of the German Anthropological Society,
and the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, presiding
over this body until he perished in 1902. His studies in anthropology began with
the skulls of mentally disabled people often called cretins and what
developmental basis for that condition was present in the skull.
Virchow published many works. He was also editor of the Journal of
Ethnology and Virchow’s Archive. Virchow was not only a brilliant physician and
researcher but he was a father and husband as well. In 1850 he married Rose
Mayer and they became parents of 6 children. Virchow was always busy attempting
to better the lives of the German people. Even at the time of his death on
September 5, 1902 in Berlin, Virchow was still serving on committees and
counsels and working diligently as editor of journals in medical education. He
was constantly working to provide quality health care to his patients and
fighting for their rights with the German Government. The writer describes Rudolf Virchow’s life and career in an ______ tone.