298 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased* 



fever) was present, the majority of the cases were what was after- 

 wards shown to be a separate disease (relapsing or recurrent fever, 

 Hunger-typhus). In the young physician's report he boldly exposed 

 the hardships of the Silesian peasants, the insufficiency of their food, 

 and the shortcomings of the Government. 



The result of the researches, at once wide and deep, which occupied 

 Virchow's time from 1844 to 1849 in Berlin, and from 1849 to 1856 in 

 Wiirzburg, culminated in the publication of his famous lectures on 

 "Cellular Pathology" (published 1855-58), not less remarkable for 

 their clearness of style, their classical proportion and symmetry, than 

 for their learning and originality. The book, of only about 450 pages, 

 was at once translated into every European language, and established 

 the author's position as the foremost pathologist of his time. 



It was followed, in 1863, seven years after his recall to Berlin, by 

 the "Krankhafte Geschwiilste," in three volumes, the last of which, 

 however, was never completed. This monumental work showed the 

 same wide knowledge of the past history of the subject, the same 

 accuracy and fulness of detail, the same comprehensive judgment, and 

 the same clearness and simplicity of style.* The absence of the 

 chapters which should have dealt with the most important of all new 

 growthsj the cancers, was a hiatus valde deflendus. It was no doubt 

 due at first to hesitation between the author's own view of the 

 mesoblastic origin of cancer and that propounded by Thiersch, and 

 established by Waldeyer, of their exclusively epithelial origin. As 

 time went on, it became more and more difficult to say anything at once 

 original and sure. After thirty years the problem remains unsolved, to 

 tempt future pathologists endowed with the learning, the insight and 

 the judgment of Virchow.f 



During the years which followed, from 1870 onward, no great 

 work appeared from the master's hand, but papers on trichiniasis, 

 craniology, and chlorosis appeared at intervals. He continued his 

 lectures, and still prepared, described and labelled the preparations for 

 his museum, until at length they numbered 23,000. He was still the 

 editor of his own " Archiv," as well as of a collection of treatises on 

 medicine by various hands, which were oddly published as a handbook 

 under his name. But he turned his attention to archaeology and the 

 studies which go under the titles of ethnology and anthropology, 

 particularly in the departments of prehistoric sepulture and of 

 craniology. 



* Its relation to the " Cellular Pathologic " may be compared with that of 

 Darwin's volumes on " Animals and Plants under Domestication " to his 

 " Origin of Species." 



f Johannes Miiller's work on tumours was also left uncompleted, but it was 

 interrupted by the great man's premature death. 



