Rudolph Virchow. 299 



He had never ceased to be interested in politics, though he had 

 'corrected the immaturity of his early opinions. He entered first the 

 Prussian, and, after the war of 1870, the Imperial German Diet. He 

 became a leader of the Liberal Party, and opposed arbitrary govern- 

 ment, military encroachments, and the formation of a German 

 fleet, while he advocated peace, economy and care for the material 

 welfare of the people. He was moderate in language, and went on 

 with his demonstrations and lectures in the Charite* while he was 

 under the surveillance of the police, with perfect equanimity. This 

 was in 1867, when political discussions were so bitter that the Prime 

 Minister, Bismarck, challenged Virchow to fight a duel. 



Not less useful was his work as a member of the Municipal Council 

 of Berlin, where for nearly forty years he preached, and at last carried 

 out, the sanitary reforms which made one of the most unwholesome 

 of continental cities into one of the best drained and most healthy. 



In his later years he was present at many congresses, and presided 

 over the one which met at Berlin. He was made a Member of the 

 Institute of France, and in 1892 received the Copley Medal of this 

 Society. He delivered the Croonian Lecture on the work of Glisson 

 in 1893, and the Huxley Lecture at Charing Cross Hospital a few years 

 later. On the latter occasion he was entertained at dinner by the leading 

 pathologists of the three kingdoms. The President of this Society 

 (Lord Lister) presided, and the President of the College of Physicians 

 (Sir Samuel Wilks) proposed the health of the venerable guest. 



Thus, surrounded by all that should accompany old age, with great 

 works completed and still full of activity and interest in life, mellowed 

 by time and wise with the wisdom of experience, Virchow passed his 

 80th birthday. 



In January, 1902, an accidental fall on leaving a tramcar in Berlin 

 caused fracture of the neck of the femur, and, as is frequently the 

 case, he never recovered from the effects of the injury, and died 

 painlessly on September 5th in the same year. 



Yirchow was small in stature, plain in manner, and without 

 elegance as a speaker. He appeared cold and hard, but he was capable 

 of righteous indignation against injustice or neglect of duty, and was 

 much beloved by his family and intimate friends. He was not liked 

 as an examiner, but as a teacher was punctual, exact, full and instruc- 

 tive. His completed works and his detailed papers were alike 

 admirable for their extent of information as to history and bibliography. 

 He was familiar not only with French English and Italian, but with 

 Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He did full justice to the merits of 

 English scientific men, particularly to Glisson, Pott, Hunter and 

 Cruikshank, Baillie, and Wilks. He did not shrink from controversy, 

 and firmly sustained his positions against Henle, Rokitansky, Hughes 



