658 RUDOLPH VIRCHOW, 1821-1902. 



thus could further political degeneration be prevented. His journey 

 of investigation in Upper Silesia guve him the first incentive to his 

 political activity. Although not naturalh' com>)ative, but rather con- 

 templative and conciliatory, he did not lack in personal courage and 

 self-f orgetf ulness, and entered into political action without fear of the 

 consequences of his outspoken thinking, and the more readily, per- 

 haps, when his actions cost him dear. It was thus he entered at first 

 into the political agitation and speedily ])ecame the representative of 

 the people. The characteristics Avhich distinguished his scientific 

 work he placed at the service of the common weal, so that his enemies 

 could })ut admit in him an uncommon fullness of knowledge and a sure 

 memory, a never satiated desii-e and capacity for work, and, finally, the 

 thorough conscienciousness and unassailable veracity of the man of 

 science. To be sure he was no political seer, and the practicability of 

 many of his reconunendations was disproved in the trial, but on the 

 other hand it is certain that he was in many points in the right and 

 that it was his scientific habit of thought and the thoroughness of his 

 methods of work which, in the thorny paths of the nonprofessional 

 parliamentarian as also in municipal life, yielded those results which 

 have been of such incalculable value to the hygiene of Berlin. 



Rudolf Yirchow always strove after results, l)ut was little concerned 

 for the mere outward signs of them. The presence of the battle steeled 

 his courage and sharpened his desire. Small vanity was wholly for- 

 eign to him, and ho could detect a flatterer at the first meeting. He 

 was receptive only to such recognition as indicated in itself that he was 

 rightlv understood, and he made use of such recognition for his own 

 guidance, for it showed him the measure of the usefulness of his work 

 for the general good better than, in his modesty, he could himself 

 have estimated it. It was in this s])irit that ]>oth in politics and in his 

 scientific work ho accepted the homage which flowed to him more and 

 more as, in the course of the decades, his work widened. He is cele- 

 brated in foi-eign lands no less than in (lermany, and he appreciated 

 the national signiticance of his honors and n>frained from ])utting them 

 off that the prestige of his fatherland might not lack. The more 

 Rudolf Virchow became the critical controlling center of (lerman sci- 

 ence, as evidenced by his official standing and in particular in his con- 

 duct of the great " Berliner Medizinischen Gesellschaft," the " Berliner 

 Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, Ethnologic und Urgeschichte,'' his 

 leading place in (icrman and international scientific congresses," and 



« With his tact and cleverness he chose for tlie subjects of his addresses in foreign 

 lands actual or historical presentations from the national tradition of the country in 

 question. Thus in Kn<i;lan(l he spoke of (ilisson in "ITber den Wert des pathologi- 

 schen Experinieiites." In this address he supported the p]nglish medical profession 

 in its battle against the antivivisectionists. In Italy, among others, he chose the 

 theme " Morgagni und der anatomische Gedanke" (address before the eleventh inter- 

 national medical congress at Rome, 1894). 



