Editing Rudolf Virchow (section)

==Scientific career==
[[File:Erinnerungsstein und Denkmal für den Arzt Rudolf Virchow in 78-300 Swidwin (Schivelbein).jpg|thumb|Memorial stone of Rudolf Virchow in his hometown [[Świdwin]], now in Poland]]
In 1839, he received a military fellowship, a scholarship for gifted children from poor families to become army surgeons, to study medicine at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (now [[Humboldt University of Berlin]]).<ref name=encyclo2004>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Rudolf_Ludwig_Carl_Virchow.aspx|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography|publisher=HighBeam Research, Inc.|access-date=24 November 2014|year=2004|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423141658/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Rudolf_Ludwig_Carl_Virchow.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> He was most influenced by [[Johannes Peter Müller]], his doctoral advisor. Virchow defended his doctoral thesis titled ''De rheumate praesertim corneae'' (corneal manifestations of rheumatic disease) on 21 October 1843.<ref name=weller21>{{cite journal|last1=Weller|first1=Carl Vernon|title=Rudolf Virchow—Pathologist|journal=The Scientific Monthly|year=1921|volume=13|issue=1|pages=33–39|jstor=6580|bibcode=1921SciMo..13...33W}}</ref> Immediately on graduation, he became subordinate physician to Müller.<ref name=whonmaedit>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/912.html|work=Whonamedit?|access-date=24 November 2014|archive-date=8 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208131340/http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/912.html|url-status=live}}</ref> But shortly after, he joined the Charité Hospital in Berlin for internship. In 1844, he was appointed as medical assistant to the prosector (pathologist) Robert Froriep, from whom he learned [[microscopy]] which interested him in pathology. Froriep was also the editor of an abstract journal that specialised in foreign work, which inspired Virchow for scientific ideas of France and England.<ref name="Bagot2008">{{Cite journal|last1=Bagot|first1=Catherine N.|last2=Arya|first2=Roopen|date=2008|title=Virchow and his triad: a question of attribution|journal=British Journal of Haematology|language=en|volume=143|issue=2|pages=180–190|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.07323.x|pmid=18783400|s2cid=33756942|issn=1365-2141|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Virchow published his first scientific paper in 1845, giving the earliest known pathological descriptions of [[leukemia]]. He passed the medical licensure examination in 1846 and immediately succeeded Froriep as hospital prosector at the Charité. In 1847, he was appointed to his first academic position with the rank of ''[[privatdozent]]''. Because his articles did not receive favourable attention from German editors, he founded ''Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin'' (now known as ''Virchows Archiv'') with a colleague Benno Reinhardt in 1847. He edited alone after Reinhardt's death in 1852 till his own.<ref name="encyclo2004" /> This journal published critical articles based on the criterion that no papers would be published that contained outdated, untested, dogmatic or speculative ideas.<ref name=weisenberg/>

Unlike his German peers, Virchow had great faith in clinical observation, [[Animal Experimentation|animal experimentation]] (to determine causes of diseases and the effects of drugs) and pathological anatomy, particularly at the microscopic level, as the basic principles of investigation in medical sciences. He went further and stated that the cell was the basic unit of the body that had to be studied to understand disease. Although the term 'cell' had been coined in 1665 during the English scientist [[Robert Hooke]]'s early application of the microscope to biology, the building blocks of life were still considered to be the 21 tissues of Bichat, a concept described by the French physician [[Xavier Bichat]].<ref name="americana" /><ref name="Bagot2008" />

The Prussian government employed Virchow to study the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia in 1847–1848. It was from this medical campaign that he developed his ideas on social medicine and politics after seeing the victims and their poverty. Even though he was not particularly successful in combating the epidemic, his 190-paged ''Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia'' in 1848 became a turning point in politics and public health in Germany.<ref name="taylor85">{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=R|last2=Rieger|first2=A|title=Medicine as social science: Rudolf Virchow on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia|journal=International Journal of Health Services|year=1985|volume=15|issue=4|pages=547–559|pmid=3908347|doi=10.2190/xx9v-acd4-kuxd-c0e5|s2cid=44723532}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Azar|first1=HA|title=Rudolf Virchow, not just a pathologist: a re-examination of the report on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia|journal=Annals of Diagnostic Pathology|year=1997|volume=1|issue=1|pages=65–71|doi=10.1016/S1092-9134(97)80010-X|pmid=9869827}}</ref> He returned to Berlin on 10 March 1848, and only eight days later, a revolution broke out against the government in which he played an active part. To fight political injustice he helped found ''Die Medizinische Reform (Medical Reform)'', a weekly newspaper for promoting social medicine, in July of that year. The newspaper ran under the banners "medicine is a social science" and "the physician is the natural attorney of the poor". Political pressures forced him to terminate the publication in June 1849, and he was expelled from his official position.<ref name="brown2006">{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Theodore M.|last2=Fee|first2=Elizabeth|title=Rudolf Carl Virchow|journal=American Journal of Public Health|year=2006|volume=96|issue=12|pages=2104–2105|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2005.078436|pmid=17077410|pmc=1698150}}</ref>

In November 1848, he was given an academic appointment and left Berlin for the University of Würzburg to hold Germany's first chair of pathological anatomy. During his seven-year period there, he concentrated on his scientific work, including detailed studies of venous thrombosis and cellular theory. His first major work there was a six-volume ''Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie (Handbook on Special Pathology and Therapeutics)'' published in 1854. In 1856, he returned to Berlin to become the newly created Chair for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, as well as Director of the newly built Institute for Pathology on the premises of the Charité. He held the latter post for the next 20 years.<ref name="Bagot2008" /><ref name="berlinmuseum">{{cite web|title=Virchow's Biography|url=http://www.bmm-charite.de/biography-of-rudolf-virchow.html|publisher=Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité|access-date=24 November 2014|archive-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003101719/https://www.bmm-charite.de/biography-of-rudolf-virchow.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="boak21">{{cite journal|last1=Boak|first1=Arthur ER|title=Rudolf Virchow—Anthropologist and Archeologist|journal=The Scientific Monthly|year=1921|volume=13|issue=1|pages=40–45|jstor=6581|bibcode=1921SciMo..13...40B}}</ref>

===Cell biology===
[[File:Virchow-cell.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Illustration of Virchow's [[cell theory]]]]

Virchow is credited with several key discoveries. His most widely known scientific contribution is his [[cell theory]], which built on the work of [[Theodor Schwann]]. He was one of the first to accept the work of [[Robert Remak]], who showed that the origin of cells was the division of pre-existing cells.<ref>Lois N. Magner ''A history of the life sciences'', Marcel Dekker, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8247-0824-5}}, p. 185</ref> He did not initially accept the evidence for cell division and believed that it occurs only in certain types of cells. When it dawned on him in 1855 that Remak might be right, he published Remak's work as his own, causing a falling-out between the two.<ref name=BBC>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m5w92|publisher=BBC4|title=The Cell: Episode 1 The Hidden Kingdom|author=Rutherford, Adam|date=August 2009|access-date=16 March 2010|archive-date=1 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701180651/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m5w92|url-status=live}}</ref>

Virchow was particularly influenced in cellular theory by the work of [[John Goodsir]] of Edinburgh, whom he described as "one of the earliest and most acute observers of cell-life both physiological and pathological". Virchow dedicated his ''magnum opus'' ''Die Cellularpathologie''  to Goodsir.<ref>Gardner, D. John Goodsir FRS (1814–1867): Pioneer of cytology and microbiology. ''J Med. Biog.'' 2015;25:114–122</ref> Virchow's cellular theory was encapsulated in the epigram ''Omnis cellula e cellula'' ("all cells (come) from cells"), which he published in 1855.<ref name="kuiper" /><ref name="Bagot2008" /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tixier-Vidal|first1=Andrée|title=De la théorie cellulaire à la théorie neuronale|journal=Biologie Aujourd'hui|year=2011|volume=204|issue=4|pages=253–266|doi=10.1051/jbio/2010015|pmid=21215242|s2cid=196608425 |url=https://www.biologie-journal.org/10.1051/jbio/2010015/pdf |language=fr}}</ref> (The [[epigram]] was actually coined by [[François-Vincent Raspail]], but popularized by Virchow.)<ref name="pmid16810425">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tan SY, Brown J |title=Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902): "pope of pathology" |journal=Singapore Med J |volume=47 |issue=7 |pages=567–568 |date=July 2006 |pmid=16810425 |url=http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4707/4707ms1.pdf |access-date=22 July 2008 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521021627/https://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4707/4707ms1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> It is a rejection of the concept of spontaneous generation, which held that organisms could arise from nonliving matter. For example, maggots were believed to appear spontaneously in decaying meat; [[Francesco Redi]] carried out experiments that disproved this notion and coined the maxim ''[[Omne vivum ex ovo]]'' ("Every living thing comes from a living thing" — literally "from an egg"); Virchow (and his predecessors) extended this to state that the only source for a living cell was another living cell.<ref>Virchow, R. (1858). Cellular pathology: As based upon physiological and pathological histology, 20 lectures delivered in the Pathological Institute of Berlin, during Feb. Mar. and Apr. 1858. New York: De Witt.</ref>

===Cancer===

In 1845, Virchow and [[John Hughes Bennett]] independently observed abnormal increases in white blood cells in some patients. Virchow correctly identified the condition as a blood disease, and named it ''leukämie'' in 1847 (later anglicised to [[leukemia]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Degos|first1=L|title=John Hughes Bennett, Rudolph Virchow... and Alfred Donné: the first description of leukemia|journal=The Hematology Journal|year=2001|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1|pmid=11920227|doi=10.1038/sj/thj/6200090}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kampen|first1=Kim R.|title=The discovery and early understanding of leukemia|journal=Leukemia Research|year=2012|volume=36|issue=1|pages=6–13|doi=10.1016/j.leukres.2011.09.028|pmid=22033191}}</ref><ref name="Mukherjee2010">{{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Siddhartha|author-link=Siddhartha Mukherjee|title=The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rF_31RVTnMC|access-date=6 September 2011|date= 2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-0795-9}}</ref> In 1857, he was the first to describe a type of [[tumour]] called [[chordoma]] that originated from the [[Clivus (anatomy)|clivus]] (at the base of the skull).<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1001/jama.1923.02640460019007 |title=Sacrococcygeal Chordoma |journal=JAMA |volume=80 |issue=19 |pages=1369–1370 |year=1923 |last1=Hirsch |first1=Edwin F }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lopes|first1=Ademar|last2=Rossi|first2=Benedito Mauro|last3=Silveira|first3=Claudio Regis Sampaio|last4=Alves|first4=Antonio Correa|title=Chordoma: retrospective analysis of 24 cases|journal=Sao Paulo Medical Journal|year=1996|volume=114|issue=6|pages=1312–1316|doi=10.1590/S1516-31801996000600006|pmid=9269106|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Theory of cancer origin===

Virchow was the first to correctly link the origin of cancers from otherwise normal cells.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wagner|first1=RP|title=Anecdotal, historical and critical commentaries on genetics. Rudolph Virchow and the genetic basis of somatic ecology|journal=Genetics|year=1999|volume=151|issue=3|pages=917–920|doi=10.1093/genetics/151.3.917|pmid=10049910|url=http://www.genetics.org/content/151/3/917.full|pmc=1460541|access-date=22 December 2014|archive-date=27 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927050758/https://www.genetics.org/content/151/3/917.full|url-status=live}}</ref> (His teacher Müller had proposed that cancers originated from cells, but from special cells, which he called blastema.) In 1855, he suggested that cancers arise from the activation of dormant cells (perhaps similar to cells now known as [[stem cell]]s) present in mature tissue.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goldthwaite|first1=Charles A.|title=Are Stem Cells Involved in Cancer?|url=http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/Regenerative_Medicine/pages/2006chapter9.aspx|publisher=National Institutes of Health|access-date=22 December 2014|date=20 November 2011|archive-date=22 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222123016/http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/Regenerative_Medicine/pages/2006chapter9.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> Virchow believed that cancer is caused by severe irritation in the tissues, and his theory came to be known as chronic irritation theory. He thought, rather wrongly, that the irritation spread in the form of liquid so that cancer rapidly increases.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Cancer|url=http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/thehistoryofcancer/the-history-of-cancer-cancer-causes-theories-throughout-history|publisher=American Cancer Society, Inc.|access-date=22 December 2014|archive-date=22 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222130553/http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/thehistoryofcancer/the-history-of-cancer-cancer-causes-theories-throughout-history|url-status=live}}</ref> His theory was largely ignored, as he was proved wrong that it was not by liquid, but by [[metastasis]] of the already cancerous cells that cancers spread. (Metastasis was first described by [[Karl Thiersch]] in the 1860s.)<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mandal|first1=Aranya|title=Cancer History|url=http://www.news-medical.net/health/Cancer-History.aspx|website=News-Medical.net|access-date=22 December 2014|date=2 December 2009|archive-date=22 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222122854/http://www.news-medical.net/health/Cancer-History.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

He made a crucial observation that certain cancers ([[carcinoma]] in the modern sense) were inherently associated with white blood cells (which are now called [[macrophages]]) that produced irritation ([[inflammation]]). It was only towards the end of the 20th century that Virchow's theory was taken seriously.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Balkwill|first1=Fran|author-link=Fran Balkwill|last2=Mantovani|first2=Alberto|year=2001|title=Inflammation and cancer: back to Virchow?|journal=The Lancet|volume=357|issue=9255|pages=539–545|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04046-0|pmid=11229684|s2cid=1730949}}</ref> It was realised that specific cancers (including those of [[mesothelioma]], lung, prostate, bladder, pancreatic, cervical, esophageal, [[melanoma]], and head and neck) are indeed strongly associated with long-term inflammation.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Coussens|first1=LM|last2=Werb|first2=Z|title=Inflammation and cancer|journal=Nature|year=2002|volume=420|issue=6917|pages=860–867|doi=10.1038/nature01322|pmid=12490959|pmc=2803035|bibcode=2002Natur.420..860C}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ostrand-Rosenberg|first1=S.|last2=Sinha|first2=P.|title=Myeloid-derived suppressor cells: linking inflammation and cancer|journal=The Journal of Immunology|year=2009|volume=182|issue=8|pages=4499–4506|doi=10.4049/jimmunol.0802740|pmid=19342621|pmc=2810498}}</ref> In addition it became clear that prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as [[aspirin]], reduced cancer risk.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baron|first1=John A.|last2=Sandler|first2=Robert S.|title=Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer prevention|journal=Annual Review of Medicine|year=2000|volume=51|issue=1|pages=511–523|doi=10.1146/annurev.med.51.1.511|pmid=10774479}}</ref> Experiments also show that drugs that block inflammation simultaneously inhibit tumour formation and development.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mantovani|first1=Alberto|last2=Allavena|first2=Paola|last3=Sica|first3=Antonio|last4=Balkwill|first4=Frances|title=Cancer-related inflammation|journal=Nature|year=2008|volume=454|issue=7203|pages=436–444|doi=10.1038/nature07205|pmid=18650914|bibcode=2008Natur.454..436M|url=https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/145688/2/Cancer-related%20inflammation_Nature.pdf|hdl=2434/145688|s2cid=4429118|access-date=20 April 2018|archive-date=30 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030195610/https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/145688/2/Cancer-related%20inflammation_Nature.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

====The Kaiser's case====

Virchow was one of the leading physicians to [[Kaiser]] [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick III]], who suffered from [[Laryngeal cancer|cancer of the larynx]]. While other physicians such as [[Ernst von Bergmann]] suggested surgical removal of the entire larynx, Virchow was opposed to it because no successful operation of this kind had ever been done. The British surgeon [[Morell Mackenzie]] performed a [[biopsy]] of the Kaiser in 1887 and sent it to Virchow, who identified it as "pachydermia verrucosa laryngis". Virchow affirmed that the tissues were not cancerous, even after several biopsy tests.<ref name="Cardesa-2011" /><ref name="Ober-1970" />

The Kaiser died on 15 June 1888. The next day a post-mortem examination was performed by Virchow and his assistant. They found that the larynx was extensively damaged by ulceration, and microscopic examination confirmed [[carcinoma|epidermal carcinoma]]. ''Die Krankheit Kaiser Friedrich des Dritten (The Medical Report of Kaiser Frederick III)'' was published on 11 July under the lead authorship of Bergmann. But Virchow and Mackenzie were omitted, and they were particularly criticised for all their works.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lucas|first1=Charles T|title=Virchow's mistake|url=http://innominatesociety.com/Articles/Virchows%20Mistake.htm|publisher=The Innominate Society of Louisville|access-date=27 November 2014|archive-date=14 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214094305/http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/Virchows%20Mistake.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The arguments between them turned into a century-long controversy, resulting in Virchow being accused of misdiagnosis and malpractice. But reassessment of the diagnostic history revealed that Virchow was right in his findings and decisions. It is now believed that the Kaiser had hybrid verrucous carcinoma, a very rare form of [[verrucous carcinoma]], and that Virchow had no way of correctly identifying it.<ref name="Cardesa-2011">{{cite journal|last1=Cardesa|first1=Antonio|last2=Zidar|first2=Nina|last3=Alos|first3=Llucia|last4=Nadal|first4=Alfons|last5=Gale|first5=Nina|last6=Klöppel|first6=Günter|title=The Kaiser's cancer revisited: was Virchow totally wrong?|journal=Virchows Archiv|year=2011|volume=458|issue=6|pages=649–657|doi=10.1007/s00428-011-1075-0|pmid=21494762|s2cid=23301771}}</ref><ref name="Ober-1970">{{cite journal|last1=Ober|first1=WB|title=The case of the Kaiser's cancer|journal=Pathology Annual|year=1970|volume=5|pages=207–216|pmid=4939999}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wagener|first1=D.J.Th.|title=The History of Oncology|year=2009|publisher=Springer|location=Houten|isbn=978-9-0313-6143-4|pages=104–105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53fmwacXu44C}}</ref> (The cancer type was correctly identified only in 1948 by [[Lauren Ackerman]].)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oliva|first1=H|last2=Aguilera|first2=B|title=The harmful biopsies of Kaiser Frederick III|journal=Revista Clinica Espanola|year=1986|volume=178|issue=8|pages=409–411|pmid=3526428|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Depprich|first1=Rita A.|last2=Handschel|first2=Jörg G.|last3=Fritzemeier|first3=Claus U.|last4=Engers|first4=Rainer|last5=Kübler|first5=Norbert R.|title=Hybrid verrucous carcinoma of the oral cavity: A challenge for the clinician and the pathologist|journal=Oral Oncology Extra|year=2006|volume=42|issue=2|pages=85–90|doi=10.1016/j.ooe.2005.09.006}}</ref>

===Inflammation===
Virchow analysed the four key symptoms of inflammation (redness, swelling, heat and pain) and postulated that inflammation includes several inflammatory processes. He introduced the idea of a fifth symptom, [[functio laesa]], the loss of function of inflamed tissues.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6911274|title=The contribution of Rudolf Virchow to the concept of inflammation: What is still of importance? &#124; Request PDF}}</ref>

===Anatomy===
It was discovered approximately simultaneously by Virchow and [[Charles Emile Troisier]] that an enlarged left supraclavicular node is one of the earliest signs of gastrointestinal malignancy, commonly of the stomach, or less commonly, lung cancer. This sign has become known as [[Virchow's node]] and simultaneously [[Troisier's sign]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Loh|first1=Keng Yin|last2=Yushak|first2=Abd Wahab|title=Virchow's Node (Troisier's Sign)|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|year=2007|volume=357|issue=3|pages=282|doi=10.1056/NEJMicm063871|pmid=17634463}}</ref><ref name=pmid24031077>{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/bcr-2013-200749 |pmid=24031077 |pmc=3794256 |title=Virchow's node |journal=BMJ Case Reports |volume=2013 |pages=bcr2013200749 |year=2013 |last1=Sundriyal |first1=D |last2=Kumar |first2=N |last3=Dubey |first3=S. K |last4=Walia |first4=M }}</ref>

===Thromboembolism===
Virchow is also known for elucidating the mechanism of pulmonary [[thromboembolism]] (a condition of blood clotting in the blood vessels), coining the terms [[embolism]] and [[thrombosis]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kumar|first1=D. R.|last2=Hanlin|first2=E.|last3=Glurich|first3=I.|last4=Mazza|first4=J. J.|last5=Yale|first5=S. H.|title=Virchow's contribution to the understanding of thrombosis and cellular biology|journal=Clinical Medicine & Research|year=2010|volume=8|issue=3–4|pages=168–172|doi=10.3121/cmr.2009.866|pmid=20739582|pmc=3006583}}</ref> He noted that blood clots in the pulmonary artery originate first from venous thrombi, stating in 1859: <blockquote>[T]he detachment of larger or smaller fragments from the end of the softening thrombus which are carried along by the current of blood and driven into remote vessels. This gives rise to the very frequent process on which I have bestowed the name of Embolia."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=T. Jock|editor-last=Huth|editor-first=Edward J.|title=Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages|year=2006|publisher=American College of Physicians|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1-93051-367-9|page=115|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cM8jVGr4qEC|access-date=27 January 2016|archive-date=17 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617025928/http://books.google.com/books?id=3cM8jVGr4qEC|url-status=live}}</ref> </blockquote>Having made these initial discoveries based on autopsies, he proceeded to put forward a scientific hypothesis; that pulmonary thrombi are transported from the veins of the leg and that the blood has the ability to carry such an object. He then proceeded to prove this hypothesis by well-designed experiments, repeated numerous times to consolidate evidence, and with meticulously detailed methodology. This work rebutted a claim made by the eminent French pathologist [[Jean Cruveilhier]] that [[phlebitis]] led to clot development and that thus coagulation was the main consequence of venous inflammation. This was a view held by many before Virchow's work. Related to this research, Virchow described the factors contributing to venous thrombosis, [[Virchow's triad]].<ref name="Bagot2008" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalen|first1=James E.|title=Venous Thromboembolism|year=2003|publisher=Marcel Decker, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8247-5645-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-3Fiw7yE5kC}}</ref>

===Pathology===
Virchow founded the medical fields of [[cellular pathology]] and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His most important work in the field was ''Cellular Pathology'' (''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre'') published in 1858, as a collection of his lectures.<ref name=berlinmuseum/> This is regarded as the basis of modern medical science,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Reese|first1=DM|title=Fundamentals—Rudolf Virchow and modern medicine|journal=The Western Journal of Medicine|year=1998|volume=169|issue=2|pages=105–108|pmid=9735691|pmc=1305179}}</ref> and the "greatest advance which scientific medicine had made since its beginning."<ref name=Knatterud>{{cite book|last1=Knatterud|first1=Mary E.|title=First Do No Harm: Empathy and the Writing of Medical Journal Articles|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-4159-3387-2|pages=43–45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhIv-wHBVs0C|access-date=27 January 2016|archive-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417165548/https://books.google.com/books?id=NhIv-wHBVs0C|url-status=live}}</ref>

His very innovative work may be viewed as between that of [[Giovanni Battista Morgagni]], whose work Virchow studied, and that of [[Paul Ehrlich]], who studied at the Charité while Virchow was developing microscopic pathology there. One of Virchow's major contributions to German medical education was to encourage the use of microscopes by medical students, and he was known for constantly urging his students to "think microscopically". He was the first to establish a link between infectious diseases between humans and animals, for which he coined the term "[[zoonoses]]".<ref name="myron">{{cite journal |year=2008 |last1=Schultz |first1=Myron |title=Rudolf Virchow |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=1480–1481 |journal=Emerg Infect Dis|doi=10.3201/eid1409.086672|pmc=2603088}}</ref> He also introduced scientific terms such as "[[chromatin]]", "[[agenesis]]", "[[parenchyma]]", "[[osteoid]]", "[[amyloid degeneration]]", and "[[spina bifida]]".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Titford|first1=M.|title=Rudolf Virchow: Cellular Pathologist|journal=Laboratory Medicine|date=21 April 2010|volume=41|issue=5|pages=311–312|doi=10.1309/LM3GYQTY79CPYLBI|doi-access=free}}</ref> His concepts on pathology directly opposed humourism, an ancient medical dogma that diseases were due to imbalanced body fluids, hypothetically called humours, that still pervaded.<ref name="etzioni">{{cite book|last1=Etzioni|first1=Amos|last2=Ochs|first2=Hans D.|title=Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders: A Historic and Scientific Perspective|date=2014|publisher=Elsevier Academic Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-12-407179-7|pages=3–4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SF9zAwAAQBAJ|access-date=25 March 2016|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407010358/https://books.google.com/books?id=SF9zAwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Virchow was a great influence on Swedish pathologist [[Axel Key]], who worked as his assistant during Key's doctoral studies in Berlin.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ljunggren |first=Magnus |date=2006-09-07 |title=Utforskare av kroppens okända passager |url=http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_13625706.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929134712/http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_13625706.asp |archive-date=2007-09-29 |website=[[Svenska Dagbladet]] |language=sv}}</ref>

====Parasitology====
Virchow worked out the life cycle of a roundworm ''[[Trichinella spiralis]]''. Virchow noticed a mass of circular white flecks in the muscle of dog and human cadavers, similar to those described by [[Richard Owen]] in 1835. He confirmed by microscopic observation that the white particles were indeed the larvae of roundworms, curled up in the muscle tissue. Rudolph Leukart found that these tiny worms could develop into adult roundworms in the intestine of a dog. He correctly asserted that these worms could also cause human [[helminthiasis]]. Virchow further demonstrated that if the infected meat is first heated to 137&nbsp;°F for 10 minutes, the worms could not infect dogs or humans.<ref>{{cite web|title=Discovery of Life Cycle|url=http://www.trichinella.org/history_2.htm|website=Trichinella.org|access-date=24 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319135716/http://www.trichinella.org/history_2.htm|archive-date=19 March 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> He established that human roundworm infection occurs via contaminated pork. This directly led to the establishment of meat inspection, which was first adopted in Berlin.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nöckler|first1=K|title=Current status of the discussion on the certification of so-called "Trichinella-free areas"|journal=Berliner und Munchener Tierarztliche Wochenschrift|date=2000|volume=113|issue=4|pages=134–138|pmid=10816912}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Saunders|first1=L. Z.|title=Virchow's Contributions to Veterinary Medicine: Celebrated Then, Forgotten Now|journal=Veterinary Pathology|date=2000|volume=37|issue=3|pages=199–207|doi=10.1354/vp.37-3-199|pmid=10810984|s2cid=19501338}}</ref>

===Autopsy===
Virchow was the first to develop a systematic method of autopsy, based on his knowledge of cellular pathology. The modern autopsy still constitutes his techniques.<ref>{{cite web|title=Autopsy: History of autopsy|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45129/autopsy|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=26 November 2014|archive-date=28 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428233654/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45129/autopsy|url-status=live}}</ref> His first significant autopsy was on a 50-year-old woman in 1845. He found an unusual number of white blood cells, and gave a detailed description in 1847 and named the condition as ''leukämie''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902)|journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians|year=1975|volume=25|issue=2|pages=91–92|doi=10.3322/canjclin.25.2.91|pmid=804974|s2cid=1806845|doi-access=free}}</ref> One on his autopsies in 1857 was the first description of [[Vertebral compression fracture|vertebral disc rupture]].<ref name=weller21/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maurice-Williams|first1=R.S.|title=Spinal Degenerative Disease|year=2013|publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann|isbn=978-1-4831-9340-3|page=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrzYBAAAQBAJ|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417013345/https://books.google.com/books?id=PrzYBAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> His autopsy on a baby in 1856 was the first description of congenital pulmonary [[lymphangiectasia]] (the name given by K. M. Laurence a century later), a rare and fatal disease of the lung.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hwang|first1=Joon Ho|last2=Kim|first2=Joo Heon|last3=Hwang|first3=Jung Ju|last4=Kim|first4=Kyu Soon|last5=Kim|first5=Seung Yeon|title=Pneumonectomy case in a newborn with congenital pulmonary lymphangiectasia|journal=Journal of Korean Medical Science|year=2014|volume=29|issue=4|pages=609–613|doi=10.3346/jkms.2014.29.4.609|pmid=24753713|pmc=3991809}}</ref> From his experience of post-mortem examinations of cadavers, he published his method in a small book in 1876.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Saukko|first1=Pekka J|last2=Pollak|first2=Stefan|chapter=Autopsy|title=Wiley Encyclopedia of Forensic Science|year=2009|volume=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.|doi=10.1002/9780470061589.fsa036|isbn=978-0-470-01826-2}}</ref> His book was the first to describe the techniques of autopsy specifically to examine abnormalities in organs, and retain important tissues for further examination and demonstration. Unlike any other earlier practitioner, he practiced complete surgery of all body parts with body organs dissected one by one. This has become the standard method.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkbeiner|first1=Walter E|last2=Ursell|first2=Philip C|last3=Davis|first3=Richard L|title=Autopsy Pathology: A Manual and Atlas|year=2009|publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1-4160-5453-5|page=6|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KiGOSz9eGeUC|access-date=27 January 2016|archive-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417165549/https://books.google.com/books?id=KiGOSz9eGeUC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Skowronek|first1=R|last2=Chowaniec|first2=C|title=The evolution of autopsy technique—from Virchow to Virtopsy|journal=Archiwum Medycyny Sadowej I Kryminologii|year=2010|volume=60|issue=1|pages=48–54|pmid=21180108}}</ref>

====Ochronosis====

Virchow discovered the clinical syndrome which he called [[ochronosis]], a metabolic disorder in which a patient accumulates [[homogentisic acid]] in connective tissues and which can be identified by discolouration seen under the microscope. He found the unusual symptom in an autopsy of the corpse of a 67-year-old man on 8 May 1884. This was the first time this abnormal disease affecting cartilage and connective tissue was observed and characterised. His description and coining of the name appeared in the October 1866 issue of ''Virchows Archiv''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Virchow|first1=RL|title=Rudolph Virchow on ochronosis.1866.|journal=Arthritis and Rheumatism|year=1966|orig-year=1866|volume=9|issue=1|pages=66–71|pmid=4952902|doi=10.1002/art.1780090108}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Benedek|first1=Thomas G.|title=Rudolph virchow on ochronosis|journal=Arthritis & Rheumatism|year=1966|volume=9|issue=1|pages=66–71|doi=10.1002/art.1780090108|pmid=4952902}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilke|first1=Andreas|last2=Steverding|first2=Dietmar|title=Ochronosis as an unusual cause of valvular defect: a case report|journal=Journal of Medical Case Reports|year=2009|volume=3|issue=1|pages=9302|doi=10.1186/1752-1947-3-9302|pmid=20062791|pmc=2803825 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Forensic work===

Virchow was the first to analyse hair in criminal investigation, and made the first forensic report on it in 1861.<ref>{{cite book|author=((Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, Federal Judicial Center, National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Committee on the Development of the Third Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence))|title=Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence|publisher=National Academies Press|year=2011|location=US|isbn=978-0-3092-1425-4|pages=112|edition=3rd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yVUMTYJPSaMC}}</ref> He was called as an expert witness in a murder case, and he used hair samples collected from the victim. He became the first to recognise the limitation of hair as evidence. He found that hairs can be different in an individual, that individual hair has characteristic features, and that hairs from different individuals can be strikingly similar. He concluded that evidence based on hair analysis is inconclusive.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Inman|first1=Keith|last2=Rudin|first2=Norah|title=Principles and Practice of Criminalistics the Profession of Forensic Science|date=2000|publisher=CRC Press|location=Hoboken|isbn=978-1-4200-3693-0|page=50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OTqqqGooccC}}</ref> His testimony runs:
{{Blockquote|[T]he hairs found on the defendant do not possess any so pronounced peculiarities or individualities [so] that no one with certainty has the right to assert that they must have originated from the head of the victim.<ref name=oien />}}

===Anthropology and prehistory biology===
[[File:Rudolf Virchow by Hugo Vogel, 1861.JPG|thumb|upright|Portrait of Rudolf Virchow by [[Hugo Vogel (painter)|Hugo Vogel]], 1861]]

Virchow developed an interest in anthropology in 1865, when he discovered pile dwellings in northern Germany. In 1869, he co-founded the German Anthropological Association. In 1870 he founded the [[Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte|Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistory]] (''Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte'') which was very influential in coordinating and intensifying German archaeological research. Until his death, Virchow was several times (at least fifteen times) its president, often taking turns with his former student [[Adolf Bastian]].<ref name="Buikstra" /> As president, Virchow frequently contributed to and co-edited the society's main journal ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'' (''Journal of Ethnology''), which Adolf Bastian, together with another student of Virchow, [[Robert Hartmann (naturalist)|Robert Hartman]], had founded in 1869.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/journal/zeitethn?item_view=journal_info|title=Zeitschrift für Ethnologie: Journal Info|website=JSTOR|access-date=16 July 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927113745/https://www.jstor.org/journal/zeitethn?item_view=journal_info|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1870|title=Front Matter|journal=Zeitschrift für Ethnologie|volume=2|pages=front cover|jstor=23025919}}</ref>

In 1870, he led a major excavation of the hill forts in Pomerania. He also excavated wall mounds in [[Wöllstein]] in 1875 with [[Robert Koch]], whose paper he edited on the subject.<ref name="weisenberg" /> For his contributions in German archaeology, the [[Rudolf Virchow lecture]] is held annually in his honour. He made field trips to [[Asia Minor]], the Caucasus, Egypt, Nubia, and other places, sometimes in the company of [[Heinrich Schliemann]]. His 1879 journey to the site of [[Troy]] is described in ''Beiträge zur Landeskunde in Troas'' ("Contributions to the knowledge of the landscape in Troy", 1879) and ''Alttrojanische Gräber und Schädel'' ("Old Trojan graves and skulls", 1882).<ref name="americana" /><ref>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Virchow, Rudolf}}</ref>

==== Anti-Darwinism ====
Virchow was an opponent of [[Natural selection|Darwin's theory of evolution]],<ref>Hodgson, Geoffrey Martin (2006). ''Economics in the Shadows of Darwin and Marx''. Edward Elgar Publishing., p. 14 {{ISBN|978-1-78100-756-3}}</ref><ref>Vucinich, Alexanderm (1988), ''Darwin in Russian Thought''. University of California Press. p. 4 {{ISBN|978-0-520-06283-2}}</ref> and particularly skeptical of the emergent thesis of [[human evolution]].<ref>Robert Bernasconi (2003). ''Race and Anthropology: De la pluralité des races humaines''. Thoemmes. p. xii</ref><ref>Ian Tattersall (1995). ''The Fossil Trail''. Oxford paperbacks. Oxford University Press, p. 22 {{ISBN|978-0-19-510981-8}}</ref> He did not reject evolutionary theory as a whole, and viewed the theory of natural selection as "an immeasurable advance" but that still has no "actual proof".<ref name="Boak-1921">{{Cite journal|last=Boak|first=Arthur E. R.|date=1921|title=Rudolf Virchow–Anthropologist and Archeologist|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/6581|journal=The Scientific Monthly|volume=13|issue=1|pages=40–45|jstor=6581|bibcode=1921SciMo..13...40B|access-date=13 October 2021|archive-date=30 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030045210/https://www.jstor.org/stable/6581|url-status=live}}</ref> On 22 September 1877, he delivered a public address entitled ''"The Freedom of Science in the Modern State"'' before the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians in Munich. There he spoke against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools, arguing that it was as yet an unproven hypothesis that lacked empirical foundations and that, therefore, its teaching would negatively affect scientific studies.<ref>Kelly, Alfred (1981). ''Descent of Darwin: The Popularization of Darwinism in Germany, 1860–1914''. UNC Press Books. See: Chapter 4: "Darwinism and the schools". {{ISBN|978-1-4696-1013-9}}</ref><ref>Kuklick, Henrika (2009). ''New History of Anthropology''. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 86–87</ref> [[Ernst Haeckel]], who had been Virchow's student, later reported that his former professor said that "it is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes...not caring in the least that now almost all experts of good judgment hold the opposite conviction."<ref>[[Smithsonian Institution]] (1899). ''Board of Regents Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution''. Board of Regents. p. 472</ref>

Virchow became one of the leading opponents on the debate over the authenticity of [[Neanderthal]], discovered in 1856, as distinct species and ancestral to modern humans. He himself examined the [[Neanderthal 1|original fossil]] in 1872, and presented his observations before the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte.<ref name=Buikstra/> He stated that the Neanderthal had not been a primitive form of human, but an abnormal human being, who, judging by the shape of his skull, had been injured and deformed, and considering the unusual shape of his bones, had been arthritic, rickety, and feeble.<ref>Wendt, H. 1960. ''Tras la huellas de Adán'', 3ª edición. Editorial Noguer, Barcelona-México, 566 pp.</ref><ref>Adam Kupler (1996). ''The Chosen Primate''. Harvard University Press. p. 38 {{ISBN|978-0-674-12826-2}}</ref><ref>De Paolo, 'Charles (2002); ''Human Prehistory in Fiction''. McFarland. p. 49 {{ISBN|978-0-7864-8329-7}}</ref> With such an authority, the fossil was rejected as new species. With this reasoning, Virchow "judged Darwin an ignoramus and Haeckel a fool and was loud and frequent in the publication of these judgments,"<ref>American Society of Medical History (1927). ''Medical Life, Volume 34''. Historico-Medico Press. p. 492</ref> and declared that "it is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Walter|first1=Edward|last2=Scott|first2=Mike|date=2017|title=The life and work of Rudolf Virchow 1821–1902: "Cell theory, thrombosis and the sausage duel"|journal=Journal of the Intensive Care Society|volume=18|issue=3|pages=234–235|doi=10.1177/1751143716663967|pmc=5665122|pmid=29118836}}</ref> The Neanderthals were later accepted as distinct species of humans, ''Homo neanderthalensis''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=White|first1=Suzanna|last2=Gowlett|first2=John A.J.|last3=Grove|first3=Matt|date=2014|title=The place of the Neanderthals in hominin phylogeny|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0278416514000221|journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology|language=en|volume=35|pages=32–50|doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2014.04.004|access-date=13 October 2021|archive-date=5 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105114949/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0278416514000221|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rogers|first1=Alan R.|last2=Harris|first2=Nathan S.|last3=Achenbach|first3=Alan A.|date=2020|title=Neanderthal-Denisovan ancestors interbred with a distantly related hominin|journal=Science Advances|volume=6|issue=8|pages=eaay5483|doi=10.1126/sciadv.aay5483|pmc=7032934|pmid=32128408|bibcode=2020SciA....6.5483R }}</ref>

On 22 September 1877, at the Fiftieth Conference of the German Association of Naturalists and Physician held in Munich, Haeckel pleaded for introducing evolution in the public school curricula, and tried to dissociate Darwinism from social Darwinism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Weiss|first1=Sheila Faith|title=Race Hygiene and National Efficiency: The Eugenics of Wilhelm Schallmayer |year=1987|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-05823-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/racehygienenatio0000weis/page/67 67], 179|url=https://archive.org/details/racehygienenatio0000weis|url-access=registration}}</ref> His campaign was because of Herman Müller, a school teacher who was banned because of his teaching a year earlier on the inanimate origin of life from carbon. This resulted in prolonged public debate with Virchow. A few days later Virchow responded that Darwinism was only a hypothesis, and morally dangerous to students. This severe criticism of Darwinism was immediately taken up by the London ''[[The Times|Times]]'', from which further debates erupted among English scholars. Haeckel wrote his arguments in the October issue of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' titled "The Present Position of Evolution Theory", to which Virchow responded in the next issue with an article "The Liberty of Science in the Modern State".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Porter |first1=Theodore M. |title=Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age |year=2006 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-1-400-83570-6 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFwckVLO-9UC |access-date=11 September 2017 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125235307/https://books.google.com/books?id=YFwckVLO-9UC |url-status=live }}</ref> Virchow stated that teaching of evolution was "contrary to the conscience of the natural scientists, who reckons only with facts."<ref name="Boak-1921" /> The debate led Haeckel to write a full book ''Freedom in Science and Teaching'' in 1879. That year the issue was discussed in the [[Prussian House of Representatives]] and the verdict was in favour of Virchow. In 1882 the Prussian education policy officially excluded natural history in schools.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weindling |first1=Paul |title=Health, Race, and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism, 1870–1945 |year=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-42397-7 |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SlB2qcb0NIC}}</ref>

Years later, the noted German physician [[Carl Ludwig Schleich]] would recall a conversation he held with Virchow, who was a close friend of his: "...On to the subject of [[Darwinism]]. 'I don't believe in all this,' Virchow told me. 'if I lie on my sofa and blow the possibilities away from me, as another man may blow the smoke of his cigar, I can, of course, sympathize with such dreams. But they don't stand the test of knowledge. Haeckel is a fool. That will be apparent one day. As far as that goes, if anything like transmutation did occur it could only happen in the course of pathological degeneration!'"<ref>Schleich, Carl Ludwig (1936). ''Those were good days'', p. 159. (Note: this conversation was taken from Schleich's memoirs ''Besonnte Vergangenheit'' (1922), and translated into English by [[Bernard Miall]])</ref>

Virchow's ultimate opinion about evolution was reported a year before he died; in his own words:
{{Blockquote|The intermediate form is unimaginable save in a dream... We cannot teach or consent that it is an achievement that man descended from the ape or other animal.|''Homiletic Review'', January, (1901)<ref>Ronald L. Numbers (1995). ''Antievolutionism Before World War I'': Volume 1 of Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Taylor & Francis. p. 101.  {{ISBN|978-0-8153-1802-6}}</ref><ref>Patterson, Alexander (1903). ''The Other Side of Evolution'', Winona Publishing Company, p. 79</ref>}}

Virchow's anti-evolutionism, like that of [[Albert von Kölliker]] and [[Thomas Brown (philosopher)|Thomas Brown]], did not come from religion, since he was not a believer.<ref name=glick/>

====Anti-racism====

Virchow believed that Haeckel's monist propagation of [[social Darwinism]] was in its nature politically dangerous and anti-democratic, and he also criticized it because he saw it as related to the emergent nationalist movement in Germany, ideas about cultural superiority,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hodge|first1=Jonathan|last2=Radick|first2=Gregory|title=The Cambridge Companion to Darwin|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-71184-5|page=238|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hawkins|first1=Mike|title=Social Darwinism in European and American thought, 1860–1945 : Nature as Model and Nature as Threat|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-57434-1|page=138|edition=Reprinted}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Randy|last2=Decker|first2=Mark|last3=Cotner|first3=Sehoya|title=Chronology of the Evolution–creationism Controversy|date=2010|publisher=Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|isbn=978-0-313-36287-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chronologyofevol0000moor/page/121 121–122]|url=https://archive.org/details/chronologyofevol0000moor/page/121}}</ref> and militarism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Regal|first1=Brian|title=Human Evolution : A Guide to Debates|date=2004|publisher=ABC-Clio|location=Santa Barbara, Calif|isbn=978-1-85109-418-9}}</ref> In 1885, he launched a study of [[craniometry]], which gave results contradictory to contemporary [[scientific racism|scientific racist]] theories on the "Aryan race", leading him to denounce the "[[Nordic race|Nordic]] mysticism" at the 1885 Anthropology Congress in [[Karlsruhe]]. Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated at the same congress that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races", further declaring that the "results of craniology" led to a "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race" over others.<ref>Andrea Orsucci, [http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/eng/index.html "Ariani, indogermani, stirpi mediterranee: aspetti del dibattito sulle razze europee (1870–1914)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105074520/http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/eng/index.html |date=5 November 2007 }}, ''Cromohs'', 1998 {{in lang|it}}</ref> He analysed the hair, skin, and eye colour of 6,758,827 schoolchildren to identify the Jews and Aryans. His findings, published in 1886 and concluding that there could be neither a Jewish nor a German race, were regarded as a blow to [[anti-Semitism]] and the existence of an "Aryan race".<ref name=silberstein/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zimmerman|first1=Andrew|s2cid=53987293|title=Anti-Semitism as Skill: Rudolf Virchow's Schulstatistik and the Racial Composition of Germany|journal=Central European History|date=2008|volume=32|issue=4|pages=409–429|doi=10.1017/S0008938900021762|jstor=4546903}}</ref>

=== Anti-germ theory of diseases ===

Virchow did not believe in the [[germ theory of diseases]], as advocated by [[Louis Pasteur]] and [[Robert Koch]]. He proposed that diseases came from abnormal activities inside the cells, not from outside pathogens.<ref name=myron/> He believed that epidemics were social in origin, and the way to combat epidemics was political, not medical. He regarded germ theory as a hindrance to prevention and cure. He considered social factors such as poverty major causes of disease.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rudolf Virchow 1821–1902|url=http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/virchow.html|publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College|access-date=8 July 2014|archive-date=3 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103010947/http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/virchow.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He even attacked Koch's and [[Ignaz Semmelweis]]' policy of handwashing as an antiseptic practice, who said of him: "Explorers of nature recognize no bugbears other than individuals who speculate."<ref name=etzioni/> He postulated that germs were only using infected organs as habitats, but were not the cause, and stated, "If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat: diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of diseased tissue".<ref>Cayleff, Susan E. (2016). ''Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America''. Hopkins University Press. p. 59. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-1903-9}}</ref>