SO-, , "- PATHFINDERS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



Muller died in 1857. Vircho:^)^, at his obsequies in Berlin, indulged 

 in the following panegyric over his master : 



"My feeble powers have been invoiced to honor this great man, 

 whom we all, representatives of the great medical family, teachers and 

 taught, practitioners and investigators, mutually lament and whose 

 memory is still so vividly with us. Neither cares by day nor labors 

 by night can efface from our mind the sorrow which we feel for his 

 loss. If the will made the deed, how gladly would I attempt the hope- 

 less task of proper appreciation. Few have been privileged, like my- 

 self, to have this great master beside them in every stage of de- 

 velopment. It was his hand which guided my first steps as a medical 

 student. * * * But how can one tongue adequately praise a man 

 who presided over the whole domain of the science of natural life ; or 

 how can one tongue depict the master mind, which extended the 

 limits of his great kingdom until it became too large for his own un- 

 divided government ? * * * ^^Q hsiYe to inquire what it was that 

 raised Muller to so high a place in the estimation of his contempor- 

 aries ; by what magic it was that envy became dumb before him, and 

 by what mysterious means he contrived to enchain to himself the 

 hearts of beginners and to keep them captive through many long 

 years ? Some have said that there was something supernatural about 

 Muller, that his whole appearance bore the stamp of the uncommon. 

 That this commanding influence did not wholly depend on his extra- 

 ordinary original endownments is certain from what we know of the 

 history of his mental greatness." 



Years of Discovery: Such was the mind from which Schwann de- 

 rived his inspiration. The middle of the nineteenth century was the 

 golden age — ^the Periclean age — of physiology in Germany. To quote 

 further from Schwann's biographer (Henle) : Those were great days. 

 The microscope had been brought to such a state of perfection that it 

 was available for accurate scientific observation. The mechanics of its 

 manufacture had besides just been simplified to such a degree that 

 its cost was not beyond the means of the enthusiastic student even 

 of limited means. Any day a bit of animal tissue, shaved off with a 

 scalpel or picked to pieces with a pair of needles might lead to im- 

 portant ground breaking discoveries." 



After the publication of his work on the cell theory, Schwann 

 was appointed professor in the University of Louvain, where he re- 

 mained nine years, after which he received a similar appointment in 

 V 1 the University of Liege. His "Microscopical Researches into the Ac- 

 Jj cordance in the Structure of Plants and Animals," though of somewhat 

 cumbersome title, is one of the great classics of biology. He proves 

 the identity in structure of animals and plants by direct comparison 

 of their elementary parts. His conclusion is that "the elementary 

 parts of all tissues are formed of cells in an analogous, though very 

 diversified manner, so that it may be asserted that there is one univer- 

 sal principle of development for the elementary parts of organisms, 

 however, different and that this principle is the formation of cells." 



Virchow and "Cellular" Pathology: Any account of the cell 

 theory must needs be incomplete with the omission of the name and 

 work of Rudolph Virchow. Virchow was bom in 1821 of humble 

 parentage, his father eking out a livelihood from the combined oc- 



