NATURE 



585 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1891. 



RUDOLF VIRCHOW AND HIS COUNTRYMEN. 



THE German people are to be congratulated on the 

 brilliant way in which the seventieth birthday of 

 Prof. Virchow was celebrated last week in Berlin. We 

 say the German people, because the entire nation asso- 

 ciated itself with the scientific societies in doing honour 

 to the illustrious investigator of whose achievements it 

 has for many a day been so justly proud. Everyone 

 who devotes the slightest attention to science is aware 

 that Prof. Virchow occupies a prominent place among 

 the foremost intellectual leaders of the present age. As 

 the Times has said, " So much has he done, and so 

 thoroughly has he done it, that it is difficult for this 

 generation to apprehend the full magnitude of his work. 

 Open a book on medicine, and especially any volume on 

 pathology, composed, it matters not much where, before 

 Virchow began his observations, and compare it with 

 one composed with the light of his endless investigations 

 to guide the author : a veritable revolution in conceptions 

 and terminology has taken place ; at every turn you read, 

 ' All this is understood since Virchow wrote,' or words to 

 that effect ; and you are referred to his multifarious 

 'epoch-making' articles scattered through many pro- 

 fessional and technical periodicals." By his great prin- 

 ciple, " Omnis cellula ex cellula," he made a contribution 

 of the highest importance to biological science; and his 

 conception of cellular processes introduced wholly new 

 and most fertile ideas as to all the phenomena of disease. 

 The science of pathology as it is now understood and 

 taught we owe, indeed, mainly to his insight and labour, 

 and the recent advances which have been made in it by 

 other explorers have been made on the lines he has traced. 

 If Prof. Virchow had done nothing else for science, this 

 alone would have secured for him imperishable fame ; 

 but his energies are so varied that it has been impossible 

 for him to content himself with one department of re- 

 search. As a student of archaeology, ethnology, and 

 anthropology, he is hardly less eminent than as a patho- 

 logist. In all these sciences he has marked an era by 

 his writings, and by the personal influence he has exerted 

 on the Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Ethnologie, 

 und Urgeschichte, which he founded in 1869. In practical 

 life, too, as a member of Parliament and of the Municipal 

 Council of Berlin, Prof. Virchow long ago made himself 

 a great power in Germany. He has missed no oppor- 

 tunity of expounding the laws of public health, and of 

 insisting upon their importance ; and a striking testimony 

 to the value of his work in this direction may be seen in 

 the improved sanitary condition of the German capital. 



To the Germans it seemed perfectly natural that, when 

 so illustrious a man of science completed his seventieth 

 year, the nation should offer its congratulations on the 

 splendid results he had accomplished. Would an English 

 man of science of corresponding intellectual rank have 

 received similar tokens of popular gratitude and respect ? 

 Unfortunately, the question answers itself ; and it would 

 be well worth the while of Englishmen to consider care- 

 fully the causes which have led to the contrast in this 

 respect between them and their German kinsfolk. It 

 NO. I 147, VOL. 44] 



may be said that Germans are more demonstrative than 

 Englishmen, but this by no means accounts for the very 

 different ways in which scientific discoverers are treated 

 in the two countries. The real root of the difference lies 

 in the fact that the importance of science is much more 

 highly estimated in Germany than in England, and 

 especially by the Governments. For several genera- 

 tions, the various German Governments have done 

 everything in their power to foster scientific investi- 

 gation. With this object in view, they have spent 

 money freely and wisely, allowing themelves to be 

 guided, not by impulse or caprice, but by the advice 

 of men of wide experience and knowledge. They 

 were quick to note the influence which might be exerted 

 on industrial development by technical education; and 

 the result is that Germany has for some time had as 

 many technical schools and colleges, adequately equipped, 

 as are necessary for her wants. We need scarcely say 

 how very different is the spirit that has hitherto animated 

 our own Government. The idea of most English states- 

 men about science seems to be that it is a bore and a 

 nuisance, and that the less they have to do with it the 

 better for themselves and the public. Even for tech- 

 nical instruction they declined to make provision, until, 

 by an accident, the present Government found itself in 

 possession of a fund which it did not know how to get 

 rid of except by giving the County Councils authority to 

 use it for the establishment of technical schools and 

 classes. Is it surprising that when their rulers act in this 

 way the mass of the British people should be utterly 

 indifferent to scientific progress ? The Germans have 

 been accustomed all their lives to see science encour- 

 aged, and all classes learn therefore to regard it as an 

 essential factor in the evolution of their national life. 

 This week they have had a fresh example of the respect 

 in which science is held, the Emperor having appointed 

 Prof. Helmholtz a member of the Privy Council, with the 

 title of Excellency. In the telegram announcing to Prof. 

 Helmholtz the honour conferred on him, the Emperor 

 took occasion to refer with pride to the lustre shed on 

 Germany by his scientific achievements. Nothing of the 

 kind is ever done here. 



The influence of education must also, of course, be 

 taken into account. There is still some dispute in 

 Germany, as in other countries, about the exact place 

 which properly belongs to science in general education ; 

 but there is no dispute at all as to the importance of 

 training children to recognize the benefits which science 

 in all its branches has conferred on mankind. More- 

 over in the " Realschuhn " an excellent scientific training 

 is provided for those who either have little power of ap- 

 preciating classical literature, or who are likely to be best 

 fitted for their future work by the study of science. And 

 in elementary schools an effort is everywhere made to 

 interest children in the facts and laws of nature, and to 

 give them some conception of the objects and methods of 

 scientific inquiry. How far we lag behind the Germans 

 in these respects all true " educationists " know. We 

 have made only a beginning in the use of science as an 

 instrument of popular culture, and many years, we fear, 

 may pass before we shall have applied it sufficiently to 

 render scientific conceptions a really vital element in the 

 intellectual life of the community. 



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