1892.] President's Address. 311 



COPLEY MEDAL. 

 Rudolph Vircliow. 



Professor Virchow's eminent services to science are known 

 throughout the world, and they are far too varied and numerous for 

 enumeration. 



He survives Schwann, Henle, and the other pioneers in several 

 branches of natural history who came from the school of Johannes 

 Miiller, and at the present time occupies a position of influence and 

 honour equal to that of his great contemporaries Helmholtz, Ludwig, 

 and Du Bois-E/eymond. 



His contributions to the study of morbid anatomy have thrown 

 light upon the diseases of every part of the body,* but the broad and 

 philosophical view he has taken of the processes of pathology has 

 done more than his most brilliant observations to make the science 

 of disease. 



In histology he has the chief merit of the classification into epi- 

 thelial organs, connective tissues, and the higher and more specialised 

 muscle and nerve. He also demonstrated the presence of neuroglia 

 in the brain and spinal cord, and discovered crystalline ha3matoidine, 

 and the true structure of the umbilical cord. 



In pathology, strictly so called, his two great achievements the 

 detection of the cellular activity which lies at the bottom of all 

 morbid as well as normal physiological processes, and the classifica- 

 tion of the important group of neiv growths on a natural histological 

 basis have each of them not only made an epoch in medicine, but 

 have been the occasion of fresh extension of science by other 

 labourers. 



In ethnological and archaeological science Professor Yirchow has 

 made observations which only the greatness of his other work has 

 thrown into the shade ; and, so far from confining himself io technical 

 labours, he has been known since he migrated to Wiirzburg and 

 returned to Berlin as a public-spirited, far-seeing, and enlightened 

 politician.f 



Universally honoured and personally esteemed by most of the 

 leading pathologists in this country, as well as on the Continent and 

 in America, who had the good fortune to be his pupils, Professor 

 Virchow is a worthy successor of the many illustrious men of science 

 to whom the Copley Medal has been awarded. 



* Among these may be mentioned his discovery of leucaemia, of lardaceous 

 degeneration, and glioma ; his reconstruction of the kind of tumour known as 

 sarcoma, and his establishment of the important group of granulomata. 



f A short pamphlet, " Ueber die Rationale Bedeutung der Naturwissenschaften," 

 may be mentioned as characteristic of the patriotism, the fairness, and the broad 

 judgment of the author. 



