In the history of medicine, there are not many ministers of medicine who created promising theories and revolutionized the system of knowledge. Virchow Rudolf, a German pathologist, is rightfully considered to be such a reformer. Medicine, after his cellular theory saw the light, began to understand the pathological process in a new way.
Teaching, doctorate and journal founding
Virchow Rudolf was born in 1821, in the city of Schifelbein, Prussia (today it is Svidvin, Poland). His father was a small landowner. At the age of 16, Rudolf Virchow became a student at the Berlin Medical Institute. He graduated from this educational institution in 1843. After 4 years, when he was only 26 years old, Virchow received his doctorate. During this time, he worked as a dissector in one of the largest hospitals in Berlin. At the same time, Rudolf Virchow founded a scientific journal called the Archive of Pathological Anatomy. He immediately won great fame in Europe, and also played an important role in the developmentmedical knowledge in the 19th century.
Report on the situation in Polish villages
It is curious that even in his youth, during his business trip to Upper Silesia, the purpose of which was to eliminate the causes of "starvation" typhus that prevailed there, Rudolf Virchow visited Pszczyna, Rybnik, Racibórz, as well as a number of surrounding villages. After that, he created a report where he vividly depicted the sanitary backwardness and poverty of the local Polish population. Rudolph demanded to improve the living conditions of these people, the organization of education and medical care. He published this report in the journal of which he was editor.
Research in Cytology
In 1843, after defending his doctoral dissertation, Rudolph began to study cellular materials. Virchow did not leave the microscope for days on end. The work carried out with great enthusiasm threatened him with blindness. As a result of his work, he discovered in 1846 glial cells (they make up the brain).
When Virchow had just begun his scientific work, cytology, that is, the science of cells, was developing rapidly. Researchers have become convinced that degenerative cells can often be found in he althy animal organs. At the same time, there are he althy tissues in the tissues almost completely destroyed by the disease. Virchow, on this basis, began to assert that the sum of the activity of the cells that make up the body is the activity of it as a whole. It was a new look at its functioning. Only the cell is the bearer of life, as he believedRudolf Virchow. His cell theory is very interesting. Disease, as Virchow believed, is also life, but proceeding in changed conditions. We can say that this is the essence of the teachings of Rudolf. He called it cellular pathology. Rudolf Virchow proved that any cell can only be formed from some other one.
Foundation of the school of physiologists
At the age of 28, in 1849, Virchow became head of the Department of Pathology, located in Würzburg. A few years later he was invited to Berlin. Virchow spent the rest of his life in the German capital. He is considered the founder of the school of physiologists who believed that the body is the sum of independent cells, and its life is the sum of their lives. Virchow thus looked at the organism as something divided into parts that have their own existence.
Virchow's Works
In 1847, Virchow received the title of Privatdozent. After that, he plunged headlong into pathological anatomy. The scientist began to elucidate the changes that occur in various diseases in the material substrate. He gave very important descriptions of the microscopic picture of diseased tissues. The scientist examined with a lens 26 thousand corpses. He summarized his scientific views in 1855. He published them in the article "Cellular Pathology" in his journal. Thus, in 1855, Rudolf Virchow proved that by dividing the mother cell, new ones are formed. He noted that all cells have a similar structure. In addition, in 1855 Rudolf Virchow proved that they are homologous, since they have a similarbuilding plan and common origin.
His theory was published in 1858 as a separate book, consisting of two volumes. At the same time, his systematized lectures were published. In them, for the first time, a characteristic of the main pathological processes, considered from a new angle of view, was given in a certain order. For a number of processes, a new terminology was introduced, which has survived to this day ("embology", "thrombosis", "leukemia", etc.). Virchow created many works on general biological topics. He wrote works on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Many articles of this scientist are devoted to the methodology of autopsies, pathological anatomy. In addition, he is the author of the theory of germ plasma continuity.
Criticism of works
Note that the general theoretical views of this scientist met with a number of objections. This was especially true of the "personification of the cell", that is, the idea that a complex organism is a "cellular federation". In addition, the scientist decomposed the sum of life units into "districts and territories", which was at odds with Sechenov's ideas about the role of the nervous system, which carries out regulatory activities. Sechenov believed that Virchow was separating a separate organism from the environment. The disease, he believed, cannot be considered only as a violation of the vital functions of one or another group of cells. But S. P. Botkin was a fan of Virchow's theory.
The role played by Virchow's theory in the development of medicine
This scientist believed that diseases are the result of conflicts that occur within the "society of cells". Despite the fact that the fallacy of this theory was proven back in the 19th century, it nevertheless played a big role in the development of medicine. Thanks to her, scientists were able to understand the causes of many diseases, for example, the mechanism of the appearance of cancerous tumors, which to this day are the scourge of mankind. In addition, Rudolph's theory explains the causes of various inflammatory processes and the role that white blood cells play in them.
Virchow's political activities
Not only was Rudolf Virchow a great scientist, but also a politician. His biography is marked by a number of achievements in this field. He led the fight for progress in sanitary hygiene and medicine. In 1862 he became a Member of Parliament. Rudolph has initiated a number of reforms in the field of social security and hygiene. For example, the construction of a sewerage system in the city of Berlin is his merit. This was absolutely necessary at that time, since in 1861 alone about 20 thousand people died of cholera here.
Rudolf's activities during the Franco-Prussian War
During the Franco-Prussian war, which lasted from 1870 to 1871, Rudolf Virchow organized field hospitals in small barracks. He tried to make sure that large concentrations of the wounded were excluded, since this created a threat of the incidence of hospital fever. In addition, it was Virchow who came up with the idea of organizing ambulance trains intended for evacuationthe wounded. Rudolf Virchow in 1880, being a member of the Reichstag, was an ardent opponent of the policy pursued by Bismarck. He died in 1902 at the age of 81.
Until now, science has not forgotten the name of the "father of the cellular theory", which is Rudolf Virchow. His contribution to biology makes him one of the best scientists of his time.
