Virchow's Eulogies: Rudolf Virchow in Tribute to his Fellow Scientists

327 Pages·2008·3.57 MB·English

by  Brian L. D. Coghlan

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Brian L. D. Coghlan
Leon P. Bignold
Virchow’s Eulogies

Rudolf Virchow in Tribute to his
Fellow Scientists
Birkhäuser
Basel · Boston · Berlin
Authors:
Brian L. D. Coghlan Leon P. Bignold
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Table of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Translator’s notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1:
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2:
Johannes Müller,Physiologist (1801–1858):a Eulogy
delivered in the Hall of the University of Berlin
by Professor Rudolph Virchow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 3:
Memorial speech for Johann Lucas Schönlein (1793–1864)
given in the Great Hall of the University of Berlin
on the 23rdJanuary 1865 – the first anniversary of his death . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 4:
Memorial address for Carl Mayer (1795–1864)
given on the 25th June 1868 by Rudolph Virchow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 5:
Morgagni and the anatomical concept
by Rudolph Virchow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Chapter 6:
Other tributes
6a. Benno Ernst Heinrich Reinhardt (1819–1852) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6b. Otto Carl Hermann Beckmann (1832–1860) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
6c. Siegfried Reimer (1815–1860) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6d. Carl Pagenstecher (1824–1865) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
6e. Ludwig Traube (1818–1876) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
6f. In Memory of Nicholas Friedreich (1825–1882) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
6g. Theodor Schwann (1810–1882) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
6h. Friedrich Heinrich Roloff (1830–1885) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
6i. Richard von Volkmann (1830–1889) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
6j. Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
6k. Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
6l. August Hirsch (1817–1894) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
6m. In Memory of Felix Hoppe-Seyler (1825–1895) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
6n. A Memoir of Ernst Heinrich Reimer (1833–1897) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
6o. Obituary for Ernst Julius Gurlt (1825–1899) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Table of contents
Appendix 1
Virchow’s last year
a. The celebration of Rudolph Virchow’s 80thBirthday.
A personal impression by Sir Felix Semon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
b. Pages in thanks for my friends.By Rudolph Virchow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
c. Some personal reminiscences.By Sir Felix Semon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
d. Obituary (The Lancet,September 1902) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
e. Obituary (The British Medical Journal,September 1902) . . . . . . . . . . 286
f. Virchow as Pathologist (The Lancet,September 1902) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Appendix 2
a. Bibliographies of Virchow’s writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
b. A bibliography of writings about Virchow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Literature cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
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Preface and Acknowledgements
This book presents translations of eulogies written by Rudolf Virchow
(1821–1902) – the most remarkable medical man in nineteenth century Ger-
many – concerning some of his famous teachers, pupils and colleagues.Vir-
chow’s achievements were unquestionably outstanding and contributed espe-
cially to the fields of medicine,politics,public health and anthropology.
To give some indication of Virchow’s works – they are the subject of many
books and articles many of which are listed in Appendix 2b of this book – the
following highlights may be noted.After graduating in medicine in 1843 and
gaining wide-ranging experience in academic pathology, Virchow published
“Cellular Pathology”(1858),in which he elaborated the fundamental idea that
disturbances in the cells in the body are the mechanisms by which pathological
lesions form.
In addition,Virchow – while remaining primarily Professor of Pathology at
the University of Berlin – founded and edited the pathology journal which
bears his name;edited other serials,including the former Canstatt’s Yearbooks;
and maintained a clinical practice,in the form of responsibility for a ward at the
Charité Hospital in Berlin.Virchow influenced many of those – his Assistenten–
who came to train with him towards outstanding careers of their own.
Rudolf Virchow’s second major area of activity was politics, in which his
views were consistently liberal.He actively supported the Revolution of 1848
and for this was effectively banished from Prussia for the period 1850–1857.
After his return to Berlin he was elected as a liberal to the City Council of Berlin
in 1859 and the Prussian Landtagin 1861.Although his opposition to Bismarck’s
policies of illiberalism and militarism ultimately had little effect on the course
of Prussian history,Virchow remained an important figure in Prussian politics
until the end of his life.
In the field of public health:in the early 1860s Virchow discovered the life
cycle of the parasite responsible for trichinosis and began a successful cam-
paign for the measures necessary to eliminate this disease.Further,through his
membership of the Berlin City Council,Virchow was important in implement-
ing the construction of the city sewerage system.
In the fields of physical anthropology, paleontology and archaeology,Vir-
chow founded a journal,was president of a relevant learned society and made
many contributions to the scientific basis of these disciplines.
Because of the nature of the man and the importance of his contributions,as
well as the distinction of the persons about whom he wrote,the present volume
is not difficult to justify.Each eulogy is an historical document concerning the
particular individual.All the works are accurate in detail – Virchow was “noth-
ing if not precise”wrote Semon (see Appendix 1c) – and some of them also cast
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Preface and Acknowledgements
light on events,in medical history as well as on European history generally,in
the nineteenth century.Moreover,because the tributes were intended for a wide
range of the academic and well-educated (gebildet) sections of German society,
they often contain simpler and more concise explanations of Virchow’s own
views than are to be found elsewhere in his writings.
We have prepared an introduction which focuses on the major issues raised
in the texts;in addition we have added notes to explain allusions and histor-
ical events which were well-known in Germany in Virchow’s time,but may be
obscure to some modern readers. At the end we include contemporaneous
English-language material relating to Virchow at the time of his death, to
stress how much he was appreciated throughout the world (Appendix 1).
Finally,we supply bibliographies of Virchow’s own works and works about him
(Appendix 2).
In the main, the eulogies were identified in the bibliography prepared by
Schwalbe (1901) (see Appendix 1a). However, neither the eulogy for Traube
(chapter 6e) nor the address for Helmholtz (1892) are included in that biblio-
graphy and was found by the authors of the Berlin.klin.Wochenschr.The other
exceptions are items on the Kaiserin Augusta,von Langenbeck and Schroeder.
All these are listed in Schwalbe (1901) as being written by Virchow,but were
found either to have been written by someone else,or the author’s name was
not given at all.These eulogies have not been included here.Virchow may have
written additional eulogies for medical men of which we are unaware.
We are extremely grateful to our Editor (Dr Beatrice Menz) for continuous
patience and support. Dr Han Baltussen translated the Latin passages and
assisted with particular references. Professor Anthony Comin translated the
Italian passages in chapter 5. Dr Axel Schmidt supplied us the meaning of a
pharmaceutical term (chapter 3).
Dr.Mary Peterson gave outstanding assistance during all phases of the prepa-
ration of this book.We are also grateful to the staffs of the Barr-Smith Library,
University of Adelaide,and of the Library of the Royal Adelaide Hospital and
Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide. Elizabeth Goodwin
typed all of the English articles re-published here;Mr Peter Dent of the Dep-
artment of Photography at this Institute prepared many of the illustrations.
Individuals in Germany whom we must thank are Dr. Dorothee Boeckh,
Heidelberg University Library; Dr. Sybille Mauthe, Heidelberg University
Library;Fr.Cornelia Gräff,University of Würzburg Library;Fr.Helga Seifert
Librarian and Dr.Bernhard Puppe,Institute of Pathology,University of Würz-
burg; Klaus Möschel, Administrator and Technical Director, Inter-Faculty
Institute of Biochemie,University of Tübingen;Dr.Robert Diensberg,Archivist
at the Görres-Gymnasium,Koblenz;Dr.Matthias David,Campus Virchow-Kli-
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Preface and Acknowledgements
nikum,Charité Hospital,Berlin;Prof.Dr.Werner Taegert,Director,Bamberg
State Library and the staffs of the City Archives in Bamberg and Koblenz.
Sybil Coghlan,as well as James and Monica Bignold,gave invaluable support
during all the difficult periods of manuscript preparation.
Brian L.D.Coghlan Adelaide,South Australia,April 2008
Leon P.Bignold
ix
Translator’s notes
Most nineteenth century German scientific authors of Manuals, Handbooks
and Textbooks etc on specific subject areas wrote in simple styles, and their
books were often translated and published in English: – for example by the
Sydenham,later New Sydenham Societies in England,as well as by other pub-
lishers in the United States of America. However, when German authors
attempted to invent ‘Systems’ and describe theories and mechanisms of biolog-
ical processes – and especially when they attempted to apply philosophical con-
cepts to biology and medicine – their writing styles tended to become complex,
wordy,and difficult to render into good English.Good examples of translators
who have mentioned these these difficulties are those of Rokitansky (1852),
Henle (1853) and W.Roux (1888).
Virchow’s style in these eulogies can be placed perhaps toward the easier
end of this spectrum of difficulty.However,some of the usual Germanic nine-
teenth century stylistic habits – of long sentences, clauses-within-clauses, and
failure to repeat the subject or verb in consecutive clauses – are relatively com-
mon.Further,eulogies by their nature demand some ‘elevation’ of style,and lit-
erary phrasing. Thus there are examples of complex flourishes of imagery
which are not intelligible by literal translation into English.These have been
rendered with corresponding English expressions.
To make other parts of the texts more easily readable,in the main,we have
made only three additional types of changes. First, we have broken up sen-
tences where a clear change of topic occurs.This is particularly where a change
of topic in the original is indicated by a semi-colon.Second,the clauses-within-
clauses have been marked off by dashes,and dashes in the original usually have
been changed to the start of a new paragraph.Third, where a noun or verb
applies to more than one clause, but is not present in the original, we have
repeated the word.
Apart from these changes,we have limited ourselves mainly to changes of
sequence (especially bringing verbs forward in sentences),together with occa-
sional simplifications of expressions such as the removal of double negatives.
Items in Sperrdruckhave been rendered in Bold.
The German professorial titles: Ordinarius for full professor and Head of
Institute, and Extraordinarius for adjunct or associate professor are used,
because they have not exact counterparts in English.Privatdocent is rendered
as ‘lecturer’ or ‘private lecturer’.The German word Assistent(en) has been
retained throughout,because there is no precise English word for the position
which it implies – of a ‘doctoral student and Professorial registrar / training
Fellow’ in the American or British systems.Also retained is the phrase Dr habil.
which carries more specific significance as an academic credential in Germany
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