Editing Rudolf Virchow (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Rudolf Virchow NLM9.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Young Virchow]]
Virchow was born in Schievelbein, in eastern [[Pomerania]], [[Prussia]] (now [[Świdwin]], [[Poland]]).<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Virchow, Rudolf|title=Appletons' Cyclopaedia for 1902|year=1903|pages=520–521|location=NY|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4FRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA520}}</ref> He was the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow (1785–1865) and Johanna Maria ''née'' Hesse (1785–1857). His father was a farmer and the city treasurer. Academically brilliant, he always topped his classes and was fluent in German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian and Dutch. He progressed to the [[Gymnasium (Germany)|gymnasium]] in Köslin (now [[Koszalin]] in [[Poland]]) in 1835 with the goal of becoming a pastor. He graduated in 1839 with a thesis titled ''A Life Full of Work and Toil is not a Burden but a Benediction''. However, he chose medicine mainly because he considered his voice too weak for preaching.<ref name="weisenberg">{{cite journal|last1=Weisenberg|first1=Elliot|year=2009|title=Rudolf Virchow, pathologist, anthropologist, and social thinker|url=http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294%3Arudolf-virchow-pathologist-anthropologist-and-social-thinker&catid=71%3Ahistory&Itemid=685|journal=Hektoen International Journal|volume=Online|access-date=24 November 2014|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305212848/http://hektoeninternational.org/index.php?catid=71:history&id=294:rudolf-virchow-pathologist-anthropologist-and-social-thinker&itemid=685&option=com_content&view=article|url-status=dead}}</ref>