650 RUDOLPH VIRCHOW, 1821-1902. 



deiiiiuided" the introduction of lii.s monistic teaching in the schools. 

 Virchovv declined to teach these proV)lematic matters as results of 

 science, for there rose up against it not only the scrupulous regard of 

 the scientist for certainty, but also his revolt against any measure of 

 compulsion in matters of belief. He remarked at the time privately 

 to the writer of these lines that Haeckel forgot that he (Virchow) as 

 the representative of the people must be considerate for the feelings 

 of those of a different belief. 



In Wiirzburg a time of most diligent scientific activity for Virchow 

 occupied the period of political paralysis following the outbreak of 

 1SJ:8. His fame was securely founded upon his Berlin investigations, 

 and especiall}^ upon the fearless and successful attack which he made 

 upon the then prevailing teaching of Rokitansky upon crasis. The 

 investigations begun in Berlin on disorders of the blood and the blood 

 vessels and on parenchymatous intiammation, whose first germs had 

 appeared in his thesis, besides other investigations of the biology of 

 the cells and tissues were completed in Wiirzburg. Here also Virchow 

 devoted himself with great success to researches in experimental 

 pathology, to which he gave a place with pathologic .anatomy and 

 chemical investigation. His greatest achievement in this field is the 

 explanation of the processes of thombosis and embolism (stoppage of 

 the ])lood vessels by clotted blood and the importation of sittdi 

 obstructing masses by the circulation). Such conditions might, as he 

 showed, arise from the cause of wounds. He sharply distinguished 

 between the consequences of infectious thrombosis and the beneficial 

 ones, and this and much of his other work was of great importance in 

 leading to better understanding of the infectious diseases. These 

 investigations, with those already mentioned upon the fever epidemic 

 in Upper Silesia, and his studies in 1852 on the famine in Spessert,* 

 gave the impetus to Virchow's work on epidemics, and with it the 

 remarkable revolution of the practice of medicine in Pi'ussia and 

 throughout Germany in the next ten years. 



Still another field in which Virchow's work was to he of the greatest 

 value, he first entered while at Wiirzburg. His first publications in 

 this field were entitled: '' ITntersuchung iiber den Cretinisnms, nament- 

 lich in Franken und iib(>r pathologische Schadelformen.''^' and "Uber 

 die Verbreitung des Cretinismus in Unterfranken.'''^ In these Vir- 



"Aintlicher Bcrifht der fimfzigstcn Versaminlunti; (U'ulsclicr Xalurforsclicr imd 

 Avzte Mi'iiielieu 1877, \)\). 75-77. 



'^Die Not im Spessert. Einc inodizinische-gcograpliische liistori.sche Skiz7-c. 

 V^erhandlungen der inediziiiische-pliysikalischeu Gesellscliaft in Wiirzburg, 1852. 



'Presented in tlie Wiirzburg phy.sikali.sch-uiedizinische (leselLsehaft on May 24 

 and .Tune 21, 1851. Verhaiidlungcn, T.d. 2, p. 2;^>n, n'printed in collected works, p. 

 891. 



'/Presented as above on May !> and NovtMuber i:;, 1S52. \'erhandliiiiueii, l>d. :!, p. 

 247, and collected works, }>. t>.')9. 



