G5r> RUDOLPH VIRCHOW, 1821-1902. 



Urgeschichte," of whicli he was almost sole editor. These oomnnini- 

 catioiis enil)ra('e, ]>osicles more than a thousand shorter artieles. a series 

 of extensive independent pul>lieations of the highest importance. 

 Among these latter can he mentioned here only the third volume of 

 the magniticent puldieation b}' Stiihel and Reiss on the burial field at 

 Ancon and the great work Crania etimica Americana which appeared 

 in commemoration of the discovery of America by Columl)us. 



Virchow devoted himself to ethnographic studies no less than to 

 other branches of anthropology, and here he became a center to which 

 the material streamed in from all sides, and from which went forth 

 suggestion, criticism, and energetic assistance. This never-idle man 

 did not disdain to teach travelers schooled in other lines of investiga- 

 tion the anthropometric methods; and indeed he found time for every- 

 thing, and never left a piece of work to others that he could possibly 

 undertake himself. Thus, for example, for ten years following its 

 inception by him in 1876, he worked up alone the data recorded in 

 German schools as to the color of the eyes, the hair, and the skin which 

 has proved of such \'alue for the knowledge of the difterent l^ranches 

 of the German race. He has reduced ^he ethnology of his homeland 

 to a practically complete s^'stem, and his work in this line has fortu- 

 nately Ijeen put in shape for popidar appreciation in the Museum fiir 

 deutsche Volkstrachten. 



Perhaps one of his greatest services to the science was that he per- 

 suaded the visionary dilletante Heinrich Schliemann to undertake with 

 Dorpfeld's help a rationally conducted excavation at Troy, and, still 

 more, that he succeeded in bringing the treasure digger back with his 

 unicpie and invaluable discoveries to the fatherland. They have been 

 placed permanently in the Schliemami hall of the Museum fiir Volker- 

 kunde where they will riMuain as an enduring monunuMit to J^udolf 

 Virchow as well. 



But investigating and collecting were not his only activities, for all 

 this time he remained in the first rank of academic teachers, expound- 

 ing not only the facts, but the philosophy of medical science. The 

 method he em])loyed of teaching pathology was quite his own, but has 

 become the example, not only for Germany, but for other civilized 

 lands. He has discussed the teaching of pathology in weighty papers," 

 and, indeed, on several occasions entered into the discussion of general 

 academic instruction and its extension. He was no inflexible supporter 

 of the old classic system of education, for in his Rectorates address he 

 remarked that linguistic studies might be very well supplanted from a 

 pedagogical point of view " l)y the golden triad mathematics, philoso- 

 phy, and the natural sciences," ])ut still from consideration of the 



«tJV)er den Unterricht in der pathologischen Anatomio, "Klinische Jahrbiicher," 

 vol. 2, i)p. 75-100, and in W. Lexis, "Die dentscheu TJniversitiiten;" R. Viichnw, 

 Die pathologisclie Aiiatouiie, pp. 241-201, Berlin, 1893. 



