NATURE 



[March 23, 1893 



et sepluagesimo exacto aetatis anno honoribus amplissimis cu- 

 mulatus, satis magnum hodie praebet dicendi argumentum. 

 Ipse laude nostra maior, laudes tamen suas (qua est modestia) 

 invitus audiet ; atqui laudes illas non verba nostra qualiacumque, 

 sed ipsius opera insignia, ipsius discipuliillustres, ipsius denique 

 orationes disertissimae, etiam ipso invito, satis clare ioquuntur. 



Legistis fortasse orationem illam in qua, Rectoris munus nuper 

 auspicatus, studiorum Academicorum orbeuniversolustrato, par- 

 tium liberaliura dux et signifer olim insignis dixit veram Aca- 

 demiae libertatem esse libertatem docendi, libertatem discendi; 

 ostenditque, qua potissimum mentis disciplina iuventus Acade- 

 mica discendi amore vere liberali imbui posse videretur. Legistis 

 certe, fortasse etiam audivistis, orationem alteram in qua 

 nuperrime inter scientias biologicas locum pathologiae proprium 

 vindicavit, et, studiorum suorum origines rtjpetens, non modo 

 Harveii nostri merita immortalia denuo commemoravit, sed 

 etiam Glissonii nostri gloriam prope intermortuam ab integro 

 renovavit. Harveii quidem in doctrina, omne vivum ex ovo 

 nasci, lacunam magnam relictam esse constat ; laetamur lacunam 

 tantam ab eo magna ex parte esse expletam qui primus 

 omnium re vera probavit om7iem cellulam e cellula generari. 



Ergo rerum naturae investigator tantus, totillustrium praeser- 

 tim medicorum in Academia, titulonostro honorifico iureoptimo 

 decoratur. Etenim ubicumque florent medicinae studia cum 

 rerum naturae observatione exquisita feliciter coniuncta, talium 

 virorum nomina in honore maximo non immerito habentur. 

 Talium certe virorum per labores verba ilia vetera vera facta sunt, 

 quae Salutis in templo supra portam inscripta esse debent : — 

 sine rerum vaturae cognitione trunca et debilis est medicina. 



Duco ad vos Regiae Societatis Londinensis unum e sociis 

 extraneis, virum geatis Teutonicae inter decora numeratum, 



RUDOLFUM ViRCHOW. 



The following is Prof. Virchow^'s Croonian Lecture : — 



It is now nearly ten years since this illustrious Society con- 

 ferred on nie the unexpected honour of electing me one of its 

 Foreign Members. Not this only, but last autumn it held me 

 worthy of a further honour, in awarding me the Copley medal 

 — a sign of the highest recognition of my work, the significance 

 of which far exceeds the distinctions which the changing favour 

 of political powers is accustomed to bestow. Nevertheless, 

 deeply as I appreciated this mark of its constant and increasing 

 esteem, still I was not in a position to offer my thanks per- 

 sonally to the society. Numerous duties, official and private, 

 the weight of which has increased with each year, compelled me 

 to continuous work at home, and even during the vacations the 

 freedom of my movements has been for some time past restricted 

 by international engagements, which yearly become more 

 numerous and more pressing. 



With great indulgence, which I fully know how to appreciate, 

 the Council ha allowed me to postpone the date of my appear- 

 ance ill yuur midst. Hence, you see me only to-day among 

 you, and I may tell you in person how very grateful I am to 

 this Society, and how great an incentive to new efforts your 

 recognition has become to me. 



Who of us is not in need of friendly encouragement in the 

 changing events of life ? True I happiness is not based on the 

 appreciation of others, but on the consciousness of one's own 

 honest labour. How otherwise should we hold our ground in 

 the midst of the turmoil of the day ? How should we preserve 

 the hope of progress and of final victory against the attacks of 

 opponents and the insults which are spared to no one who 

 comes before the public? He who during a long and busy life 

 is exposed to public opinion, certainly learns to bear unjust 

 criticism with equanimity, but this comes only through the con- 

 fidence that our cause is the best, and that some day it must 

 triumph. Such is our hope in our wrestlings for progress in 

 science and art. Such is our hope in our struggles for civil and 

 religious liberty, and in this hope we gradually become hardened 

 against malicious attacks. It is a kind of immunisation which, 

 I acknowledge, has also great drawbacks, for this hardening 

 against unjust attacks leads very easily to a similar indifference 

 towards just attacks, and, owing to the tendency to contradic- 

 tion rooted in the nature of human thought, it finally leads also 

 to indifference to praise and recognition. One withdraws again 

 and again into oneself discontented with the world and with one- 

 self also ; but who can so completely retire within himself that the 

 consciousness of the insufficiency of human thought, and that 

 the criticisms of opponents are justified, cannot break through 



NO. 122 1, VOL. 47] 



the crust of even the most hardened self-consciousness ? Happy 

 is he who has courage enough to keep up or regain his con- 

 nections with other men, and to take part in the common work I 

 Thrice happy he who does not lack in this work the flattering 

 commendation of esteemed colleagues ! 



Such were the thoughts which filled my mind, as, looking 

 forward to the present occasion, I reviewed my own life and the 

 history of science, or, to use another expression, the fortunes of 

 our predecessors. How often have I found myself in a state of 

 despondency, with a feeling of depression ! And the history of 

 science — what long periods of stagnation and numerous inter- 

 ruptions has it not experienced owing to the victory of erroneous 

 doctrines ! What has saved me is the habit of work, which 

 has not forsaken me even in the days of outward misfortune — 

 that habit of scientific work which has always appeared to me 

 as a recreation, even after wearying and useless efforts in politi- 

 cal, social, and religious matters. 



That which has saved science is identically the same ; it only 

 appears to be different, because the co-operation of many is 

 necessary to secure the advance of science ; hence, the exalting 

 and consoling thought that one nation after the other comes to 

 the front to take its share in the work. When the star of science 

 becomes dim "in one nation, it rises sooner or later to yet 

 brighter glory in another, and thus one nation after another 

 becomes the teacher of the world. 



No science, more often than medicine, has gone through 

 these waxings and wanings of brilliancy ; for medicine alone, of 

 all the sciences, has, for more than 2000 years, found ever new 

 homes in the course of a progress which, though often disturbed, 

 has never been wholly arrested. 



It would lead us too far to illustrate this with examples 

 drawn from the entire past. It is enough for my present pur- 

 pose to take the outlines of modern medicine as ihe object of 

 our consideration. Such a sketch, cursory as it must be, ought 

 at the same time to throw some light on the intellectual relations 

 of both nations, English and German, for these have taken a 

 prominent part in establishing the principles of modern medi- 

 cine. 



The downfall of the old medicine, the so-called humoral 

 pathology was brought about in the beginning of the i6ih 

 century. We, in Germany, are inclined to attribute to our nation 

 a decisive role in this memorable struggle. 



It was a man of our race, Andreas Vesalius, or from Wesel, 

 who transformed anatomy into an exact science, and who- 

 thus, at one stroke, created for medicine a solid foundation, 

 which it has retained ever since and, let us hope, will never 

 again lose. 



But the principal blow to the old medicine was struck by his 

 somewhat elder contemporary Paracelsus, that charlatan, yet 

 gifted physician, who removed from among the beliefs of man- 

 kind the doctrine of the four humores, which, q tias 2 -chtmicaX in 

 its construction, formed the basis of the old pathology. 

 Strangely enough he accomplished this with weapons borrowed 

 from the armoury of the Arabs, the successors of the Greeks, 

 and the chief representatives of the mediaeval humoral patho- 

 logy. From them, also, he borrowed alchemy, and, at the same 

 time, the fantastic spiritualism of the East, which found a clear 

 expression in his doctrine of the " Archoeus," as the determining 

 force in all living beings. 



In this way, the new medicine, at its very birth, absorbed the 

 germs of that ruinous contradiction, which, even up to this pre- 

 sent century, has kept up the embittered strife of the schools. 



To Vesalius is due the exact tendency, which starts from the 

 observation of actual conditions, and which, without going 

 further, we may call the anatomical. 



Paracelsus, who pronounced the anatomy of the dead body to 

 be useless, and sought for the basis of life as the highest goal of 

 knowledge, demanded "contemplation" before all else; and, 

 just as he himself arrived in this way at the metaphysical con- 

 struction of the archsei, so he unchained among his followers a 

 wild and absolutely fruitless mysticism. 



Nevertheless there lay hidden in that "contemplation " of his 

 a healthy kernel, which would not allow the intellectual activity 

 which it had stirred up to come to rest. It was the idea of life 

 which formed the ultimate problem for all future research. 

 Strangely enough, this idea, which always existed in the 

 popular mind, and which is in an unmistakable form present 

 even amongst primitive nations, had been driven far into- 

 the background in scholastic medicine. Ever since the time 

 of Hippocrates it had been the custom to use, instead 



