VIRCHOW 



6090 



VIRGIL 



guished as a scientist, educator, physician and 

 legislator. His most important and most en-' 

 during labors were in the field of pathology, the 

 study of diseases. His great work on this 

 branch of science, Cellular Pathology, was pub- 

 lished in 1858, and it not only won the accept- 

 ance of the medical authorities but it displaced 

 for all time the pathological theories previously 

 held. He originated and firmly established the 

 principle that the laws working in disease are 

 similar to those operating in health, though 

 subject to different conditions, and he made 

 important discoveries concerning various dis- 

 eases. These and many other achievements in 

 his special field give him undisputed claim to 

 the title of "father of modern pathology." 



Virchow was the son of a small farmer and 

 shopkeeper of Schivelbein, Pomerania. He at- 

 tended the common school in his native vil- 

 lage, later was a pupil at the gymnasium in 

 Koslin, at the age of seventeen went to Berlin 

 to study medicine, and in 1847 became lecturer 

 in the University of Berlin. His brilliant work 

 in the study of diseases had already gained for 

 him a reputation, and he was shortly commis- 

 sioned by the German government to investi- 

 gate the cause and cure of typhus fever in 

 Silesia. At the same time he founded the peri- 

 odical of which he remained the editor until his 

 death, and which became famous the world 

 over under the name Virchow's Archives. 



The political disturbances of 1848, the year of 

 revolutions throughout Europe, widened his 

 sympathies and his interests, but his too ardent 

 friendship for the reform element cost him his 

 university position, and he found it advisable 

 to retire to Wiirzburg. The following year he 

 accepted a call to the chair of pathological 

 anatomy in the University of Wiirzburg, achiev- 

 ing in this position such renown that he was 

 recalled to Berlin in 1856, where he made the 

 department of pathology the most famous of 

 its kind in Europe. His field of activity con- 

 tinued to widen. In 1859, as member of the 

 Municipal Council of Berlin, he vigorously op- 

 posed the despotic police system then in vogue, 

 and three years later, having been elected to 

 the Prussian Diet, he rose to the leadership of 

 the opposition in that body. From 1880 to 

 1893 he was a prominent figure in the German 

 Reichstag. 



Virchow's medical talent and knowledge were 

 placed at the disposal of the government in the 

 war with Austria in 1866 and in the Franco- 

 German War of 1870-1871. When peace was 

 restored in 1871 he turned his attention to the 



sewage problem of Berlin, and under his direc- 

 tion sewage farms were established of such 

 magnitude that they meet the needs of the 

 city at the present time, while the revenue de- 

 rived from them is sufficient to pay the cost of 

 operation. Virchow was also a distinguished 

 archaeologist, and was able to be of great serv- 

 ice to Schliemann in the latter's researches in 

 Hissarlik and in the plains of ancient Troy (see 

 ARCHAEOLOGY). B.M.W. 



VIR'DEN, a town in the southwest corner 

 of Manitoba. It is on the main line of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, forty-seven and a 

 half miles west of Brandon, and is the point at 

 which the Brandon-Saskatoon line branches 

 from the main line. It is also the terminus of 

 a branch of the Canadian Northern Railway. 

 The town ships considerable grain, and its five 

 elevators, with a total capacity of 200,000 bush- 

 els, are conspicuous features. Two machine 

 shops, a creamery, pump factory and the town's 

 acetylene gas works are also noteworthy. Popu- 

 lation in 1911, 1,500; in 1916, about 2,000. 



VIREO, vir'eo, a family of very small, in- 

 sect-eating birds, keeping closely to foliage, and 

 from their greenish color commonly known as 

 greenlets. They are found only in America, 

 and are especially abundant in the tropics. A 



RED-EYED VIREO 



few migratory species reach the United States 

 and Canada. The best known of these is the 

 red-eyed vireo, distinguished by a conspicuous 

 white line with a black border over its red eye. 

 From its continually repeated conversational 

 note, this vireo is often called the preacher bird. 

 It builds a neat, cup-shaped nest which it sus- 

 pends from a forked branch. The eggs are 

 white, with a few dark specks or spots. They 

 are three or four in number. 

 VIR'GIL. See VERGIL. 



