Whether we can observe this or that fact depends on what theory we use. The theory determines what facts we will observe. During the first fifty years after the adoption of the Copernican system, astronomers discovered an extraordinary amount celestial bodies, although the observation methods remained the same. New theory helped to notice something that was not noticed before, in times old theory. There are not many in the history of medicine who have created promising theories. The German pathologist Virchow rightfully belongs to such reformers of medicine. After the appearance of his cellular theory, medicine saw the pathological process in a new way.
The father of the “cellular theory” Rudolf Virchow (R. Virchow) is a reformer of scientific and practical medicine, founder of modern pathological anatomy, the founder of a scientific direction in medicine, which went down in the history of science under the name cellular or cellular pathology, was born on October 13, 1821 in Schiefelbein, Pomerania, into a poor merchant family. In March 1839, at the age of seventeen and a half, Rudolf graduated from the Keslin gymnasium and in the same year he entered the Berlin Friedrich-Wilhelm Medical-Surgical Institute, becoming a student, like Helmholtz, of the outstanding physiologist I.P. Muller.
After graduating from the university in 1843 and defending his doctoral dissertation the following year, Virchow was appointed a researcher at the Charite clinic and an assistant at the pathological laboratory. From the very first days, Dr. Virchow took up the study of cellular materials with great enthusiasm; he did not leave the microscope for days. The work threatened him with blindness. As a result of such dedicated work, he discovered in 1846 the glial cells that make up the brain.
The unpopular characters of the brain turned out to be glial cells. They were unlucky because all the abilities of the brain were traditionally explained only through the work of the neuron, and all techniques were aimed and adapted to the neuron - eavesdropping on its impulsive speech and isolating neurotransmitters, tracking the afferent pathways and regulating peripheral organs. Glia is deprived of all this. And therefore, when R. Galambos proposed that it is glial cells, and not neurons, that form the basis the most complex abilities brain: acquired behavior, learning, memory, his idea seemed completely fantastic, and none of the scientists took it seriously. Rudolf Virchow considered glia to be a supporting skeleton and “cellular cement” that supports and holds together nerve tissue. Hence the name: translated from ancient Greek “glion” means glue. Further study of glial cells brought many surprises.
Having received the title of privat-docent in 1847, Vikhrov plunged headlong into pathological anatomy: he began to clarify the changes that occur in the material substrate when various diseases. He gave incomparable descriptions of the microscopic picture of various diseased tissues and visited with his lens every dirtiest corner of twenty-six thousand corpses. Virchow, a prolific scientist who published a thousand works on a variety of medical topics, elected in the same year as a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Together with Reichardt in 1847, Virchow founded the journal Archive of Pathological Anatomy, Physiology and clinical medicine", known as the "Virchow's Archive" (Virchow's Archiv für pathgische Anatomie und Physiologie undklinische Medezin), in which he published his works; the magazine continues to be published to this day.
Due to political events in Europe (revolution of 1848) and Virchow's participation in them as a progressive figure, he was forced in 1849 to leave Berlin for Würzburg, where he was elected professor at the department of pathological anatomy of the local university. Time passes, full of hard work, and Virchow finally, in 1856, receives a long-awaited offer to occupy the department of pathological anatomy specially established for him, general pathology and therapy at the University of Berlin. At the same time, he created the Pathological Institute and Museum; becomes director of the Institute of Pathology. He works in this position until the end of his life. Let's take a closer look at what Virchow's merit is.
Before Virchow's work, views on disease were primitive and abstract. According to Plato’s definition, “disease is a disorder of the elements that determine the harmony of a healthy person,” Paracelsus put forward the concept of the “healing” power of nature (via medicatrix naturae) and considered the course and outcome of the disease depending on the outcome of the struggle between pathogenic forces and the healing forces of the body. In the era of ancient Roman culture, C. Celsus believed that the occurrence of disease was associated with the impact on the body of a special pathogenic idea (idea morbosa). The essence of the disease was seen in a violation of the harmony of the body caused by the action of spirits (“archaea”) residing in the stomach (Paracelsus), disrupting the metabolism and activity of enzymes (van Helmont) and peace of mind(Stahl).
After Virchow's work, it became generally accepted to divide the history of medicine into two periods - pre-Virchow and post-Virchow. In the last period, medicine was greatly influenced by the ideas and authority of Virchow. Virchow's views were recognized as the guiding theory of medicine by almost all of his contemporaries, including the largest representative of the humoral direction, the Austrian anatomist Karl Rokitansky.
Rudolf Virchow - short, with kind eyes and with such a sincere expression of curiosity as talented people have, already in the first years of his activity he openly opposed the dominant humoral trend in pathology at that time, which originated from Hippocrates and proceeded from the position that the basis of any disease process is changes composition of body fluids (blood, lymph). In his first works, he characterized such important pathological processes as vascular blockage, inflammation, and regeneration. His research was built on completely new grounds for that time, with a new approach to the analysis of disease processes, which he later developed into the doctrine of cellular pathology.
Professor Virchow summarized his scientific views in 1855 and presented them in his journal in an article entitled “Cellular Pathology.” In 1858, his theory was published as a separate book (2 volumes) entitled “Cellular pathology as a doctrine based on physiological and pathological histology.” At the same time, his systematic lectures were published, in which for the first time in in a certain order all the main pathological processes were characterized from a new angle, new terminology was introduced for a number of processes, which has been preserved to this day (“thrombosis”, “embolism”, “amyloid degeneration”, “leukemia”, etc.). This book, which had a huge impact on the further development of medicine, was immediately translated into almost all languages of the world; In Russia, the first edition of Cellular Pathology was published in 1859. Since then it has been regularly reprinted in almost all countries and for decades was the basis for theoretical thinking many generations of doctors.
Virchow's cellular pathology had a huge impact on the further development of medicine; According to the theory of cellular pathology, the pathological process is the sum of disturbances in the functioning of individual cells. Virchow described the pathomorphology and explained the pathogenesis of the main general pathological processes. Cellular pathology represents a wide theoretical system, covering all the main aspects of the body’s vital activity under normal and pathological conditions. In his general ideas about complex organisms, Virchow proceeded from the doctrine of cellular structure organisms. According to Virchow, the cell is the only carrier of life, an organism equipped with everything necessary for independent existence. He argued that "the cell truly represents the last morphological element of all living things" ... and that " real activity nevertheless comes from the cell as a whole, and the cell is active only as long as it truly represents an independent and integral element.” He established the continuity of cell formation in his now famous formula: “every cell is from a cell (omnis cellula e cellula).”
Professor Virchow destroyed the mystical ideas about the nature of diseases that existed before him and showed that disease is also a manifestation of life, but occurring in conditions of impaired vital activity of the body, that is, he built a bridge between physiology and pathology. Virchow owns the shortest of known definitions illness as “life under abnormal conditions.” According to his general ideas, he made the cell the material substrate of the disease: “The cell is the tangible substrate of pathological physiology, it is the cornerstone in the stronghold scientific medicine" “All our pathological information needs to be localized more strictly, summarized by changes in elementary parts tissues, in cells."
Virchow's general theoretical views met a number of objections. Particularly criticized was the “personification” of the cell, the idea of a complex organism as a “cellular federation”, as a “sum of vital units”: the decomposition of the organism into “districts and territories”, which sharply diverged from the ideas of I.M. Sechenov about the whole organism and the role nervous system, whose regulatory activity carries out this integrity. Sechenov spoke about the main thing: Virchow separates the organism from its environment. The disease cannot be considered as a simple violation of the vital functions of any group, the sum of individual cells. “Virchow’s cellular pathology... as a principle is false,” Sechenov said. By the way, S.P. Botkin remained a fan of Virchow's theory.
In accordance with this, the narrow localism of cellular pathology is unacceptable for modern science, according to which the disease is reduced to damage to certain cellular territories and its occurrence is the result of the direct impact of the pathogenic agent on these territories. It is also unacceptable for modern science to underestimate the role of nervous and humoral factors in the development of the disease. A number of general provisions of cellular pathology are currently of only historical interest, which does not deny its enormous, revolutionary significance in medicine and biology.
Virchow's materials on the morphological basis of diseases had crucial in the development of modern ideas about their nature. Introduced by him general method the study of diseases has been further developed and is the basis of modern pathological and anatomical research. In Virchow's method, what was new for that time was the rejection of speculative1 reasoning and the substantiation of any position by objective morphological data.
Professor Virchow studied almost all human disease processes known at that time and published numerous works in which he gave a pathological description and explained the mechanism of development (pathogenesis) of the most important human diseases and a number of general pathological processes (tumors, regeneration processes, inflammation, tuberculosis, etc.) . A number of Virchow’s articles are devoted to the pathology and epidemiology of infectious diseases from the point of view of his general principles theoretical concepts. During the period of rapid flourishing of microbiology, Virchow rejected the possibility of an exhaustive disclosure of the nature of an infectious disease by the discovery of its causative agent and argued that the main role in the development of this disease belongs to the reactions of the body - a view that was fully confirmed in all subsequent developments of infectiology.
Many of Virchow’s articles are devoted to the teaching of pathological anatomy, dissection techniques and the general methodology of dissection, its role and place in the system of medical medicine. In all his multifaceted activities, Virchow consistently pursued the idea of the unity of theory and practice. “Practical medicine is theoretical medicine applied,” Virchow proclaimed in the very first issue of his “Archive”. He always put forward the need for the pathologist to be in close contact with the clinic, figuratively formulating this requirement as follows: “The pathologist must see life in his material instead of death.” These ideas have retained their significance to this day and have found their further development in the pronounced clinical and anatomical direction of pathological anatomy, developed by modern scientists.
A significant number of works by Rudolf Virchow are devoted to general biological topics. In addition, his works cover special issues of anthropology and ethnography, as well as archaeology. He showed interest in these issues back in early years, and he, together with the famous German archaeologist Schliemann, participated in the excavations of Troy. Work in the field of anthropology has led to the systematization of skull types and their designations.
In Virchow’s general biological views, which initially stood on the basis of the doctrine of evolution and adjoined the teachings of Darwin, a change later occurred that coincided with the change in his general political views after the Paris Commune. In the second period of his life, he acted as an ardent opponent of evolutionary teaching. By the way, he had many like-minded people: among Russian scientists - Lesgaft, French - Broca, etc.
Throughout his life, Virchow took an active part in public life in Germany. In the first period, he was a persistent and active advocate of social reforms, improving the financial situation of people, asserting, on the basis of his epidemiological studies, the social nature of many diseases. Together with Leibusher, he published the journal “Reform of Medicine,” which promoted these ideas. As a member of the Berlin municipality, he actively sought the implementation of a number of sanitary and hygienic measures (in particular in matters of water supply, sewerage, etc.). emphasized great importance medicine like social science and the role of health measures in raising the general material well-being of the population.
Rudolf Virchow was one of the founders and leaders of the progressive party of the Berlin City Assembly, formed in 1861 and representing the left wing of the bourgeois opposition to the Bismarck government; was a member of the Prussian Landtag (from 1862) and the German Reichstag (1880-1893). In connection with his 70th birthday, he was awarded the title and diploma of an honorary citizen of the city of Berlin. On October 15, 1892, Virchow took office as rector of the University of Berlin. Great scientist and public figure Rudolf Virchow died on September 5, 1902.
Virchow(Virchow) Rudolf Ludwig Karl (10/13/1821, Schiefelbein, Pomerania - 09/05/1902, Berlin), German pathologist, anthropologist, archaeologist and politician. Primary education received in the family and in private schools. In 1839 he entered Berlin University, having chosen the topic of the essay: A life full of labor and struggle is not a yoke, but a blessing. Defended in 1843 doctoral dissertation, in the same year he began working at the Charité clinic in Berlin. In 1847 he became a professor at the University of Berlin. Founded the journal Archive of Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Medicine (Archiv fur pathologische Anatomie, Physiologie und fur klinische Medizin).
In 1848 Virchow was sent to Silesia to study the typhus epidemic. 53 years later, he wrote that it was then that he became convinced of the connection between issues of practical medicine and social reforms. From these positions Virchow tried to illuminate medical problems in the journal Medical Reform. In 1849, due to anti-monarchist activities, he lost his position in the clinic and was forced to move from Berlin to Würzburg (Bavaria), where he became head of the department of pathological anatomy at the University of Würzburg. In 1856 he accepted the offer of the University of Berlin to occupy the newly created department of pathological anatomy; at the same time he became director of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy. In 1958, Virchow’s lectures were published in a separate book entitled “Cellular Pathology” (Die Cellularpathologie), in which any organism was considered as a collection of living cells, organized like a state. The personification of the cell and the idea of the organism as a cellular federation, the sum of individual cells, diverged from the views of the organism as whole system and met with numerous objections. Denial of the role of humoral and nervous factors in pathology was also unacceptable. Despite this, Virchow's works about morphological basis diseases played an important role in the development of ideas about their nature and subsequently laid the foundation for modern pathoanatomical research.
Among Virchow's works are studies of pathology and epidemiology of infectious diseases, pathological anatomy, and the development of autopsy methodology. Virchow is the author of the theory of germ plasm continuity.
As a member of the Berlin municipality, Virchow pushed for a number of sanitary and hygienic measures (water supply, sewerage, etc.). In 1861 Virchow became a member of the Prussian Diet (Landtag). After the Franco-Prussian War, he withdrew from politics for a time, although he remained a member of the Landtag. I was studying educational activities: for 33 years he published popular science collections on ethnology, anthropology and archeology. Together with the famous German archaeologist G. Schliemann, he took part in the excavations of Troy and carried out a systematization of the skulls found there. He was the editor of an ethnological journal, and in 1873 he participated in the founding of the German Anthropological Society, the Berlin Society of Anthropology, Ethnology and ancient history. From 1880 to 1893 he was a member of the Reichstag.
Bibliography of medical works
From individual works of Virchow, in addition to special works and small brochures are especially famous:
- “Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur wissenschaftl. Medicin" ();
- "Untersuchungen über die Entwicklung des Schädelgrundes" ();
- “Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiol. und pathol. Gewebslehre" ();
- "Die krankhaften Geschwülste" (1863-1867);
- "Vier Reden über Leben und Kranksein" ();
- "Lehre von den Trichinen" ();
- "Ueber einige Merkmale niederer Menschenrassen" (); * “Gräberfeld von Koban im Lande der Osse ten” (Berlin, );
- “Gesammelte Abhandl. aus dem Gebiete der öffentl. Medicin und der Seuchenlehre" ().
Wed. S. M. Lukyanova: “R. Virchow and his vitalism" (Warsaw,), I. V. Bertenson, "R. Virchow as a hygienist” (“Bulletin of Public Hygiene”, Jan.).
Archaeological activities
V.'s anthropological research led him to archaeological research, which he carried out throughout Germany and other European countries. He has works on urns, on the Bronze Age, on mounds, on pile buildings, etc. In the year he participated in the famous excavations of Schliemann, and as a result his works appeared: “Zur Landeskunde der Troas” (Berlin,; in Russian: “The Ruins of Troy” in the “Historical Bulletin”, No. 2) and “Alttrojanische Gräber und Schädel” (Berlin, ).
Political activity
On political path Virchow was brought in not by a thirst for glory, but by a humane feeling. During the trip to Upper Silesia mentioned above, he became convinced that “doctors are the natural advocates of the poor, and a large part of the social question falls within their jurisdiction.” Since then, science and politics have gone parallel with Virchow, uniting into one whole in the field of public medicine. To promote the development of sanitary affairs, he began to take part in elected city institutions. Virchow's efforts in this regard were crowned complete success. The German governments heeded his eloquent admonitions and began to gradually implement his plans for the sanitary sector. Thanks to his tireless activity, Germany and especially the cities reached it little by little. high degree perfection in sanitary terms, where they stood by the 1890s. Berlin especially owed a lot to him, in municipal government which he participated with Mr.
These include his writings:
- "Kanalisation oder Abfuhr" (Berlin, );
- "Reinigung und Entwässerung Berlins" (Berlin, 1870-1879);
- "Die Anstalten der Stadt Berlin für die öffentliche Gesundheitspflege" (Berlin, ).
Along with his participation in city government, there is his activity in parliament, where, again, sanitary issues were, as it were, his personal specialty; but he also took a very prominent part in the discussion of general political issues. Elected to the Prussian Diet immediately upon his return from Würzburg, in the same year he became one of the founders and leaders of the progressive party, which subsequently united with the secessionists and turned into a party of free thinkers. This party owes its influence on the course of affairs to a large extent to Virchow, his unwavering firmness in convictions, his tireless activity and the impeccable purity of his name, which slander never dared to touch. During the famous conflict between the Prussian government and the Diet (1862-1866), Virchow was one of the main leaders of the opposition.
After the creation of the German Empire, Virchow withdrew from the political arena for a while. The loud victories of German weapons did not captivate him; he did not believe in the beneficence of the empire, which had united the German people with iron and blood. “I am not fit now,” he told deputations of voters who repeatedly asked him to accept parliamentary powers, “to represent the country; Given her current mood, I have nothing to do in parliament. Maybe I will live to see the time when the people will need my voice again; then I will appear if he calls me, but now not.” This time came in the early 1880s, at the height of reactionary politics book Bismarck. Then Virchow first entered the imperial parliament as a deputy from the city of Berlin and since then occupied one of the first places in the party of free thinkers.
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Rudolf Virchow had a very great influence on the further development of cell theory and on the study of cells in general.
His merit lies primarily in the fact that he brought together all the individual, quite numerous, but scattered facts and showed with great convincingness that no one had ever given convincing evidence in favor of the emergence of a cell de novo (newly) from an unformed mass. Next, Virchow dug into the special field of his research - in pathology - all the advantages of the idea of \u200b\u200bcell reproduction by division. Virchow's main work is called “Cellular pathology, as a doctrine based on physiological and pathological histology” (1855-1859).
The first chapter of this book is purely theoretical and is devoted to the consideration of cell theory. Virchow argued that cells represent the lowest morphological element and only from their totality are all living beings composed, that outside the cell we cannot assume the existence of real life.
Thus, Virchow specifically emphasized that the cell is inherent in integrity and its vital activity is unique. He wrote: “Something quite unique is attributed to life. To some, this may seem like a kind of biological mysticism, since life in this way... does not completely boil down to chemistry and physics. From the following presentation, everyone will be convinced that hardly anyone can imagine the ongoing processes as more mechanistic than I do when we're talking about about life processes in elementary morphological elements.”
According to Virchow, any process occurring in a cell is a purely physico-chemical process, but still vital activity comes from the cell as a whole. The cell is a living unit, surviving only as long as it remains a single unit. This view represents a completely new point of view.
Moving on to a specific morphological description of the cell, Virchow does not introduce anything particularly new. In general, he presents the data about this structure in a rather conventional way and essentially repeats what Purkinya had already written about much earlier. He notes that the main difference between a plant and an animal cell is the absence of a cellulose membrane in the latter. He writes that "the shell animal cell corresponds to the so-called primary sac plant cell"(this is what the thickened surface layer of protoplasm was called at that time). He rightly considered the cellulose membrane as something that arose as a result of later development from the body of the cell itself.
So, it is important to note that Virchow considered the cell as a structure “apparently very unique, although elementally constructed and repeated with amazing constancy in all living organisms.” Virchow considered cells to be a permanent structure and argued that they arise only through reproduction. He formulated this position as follows: “every cell is from a cell” (omnis cellula celluiae).
Speaking against the widespread theory of cytogenesis, Virchow noted that it was based on very unreliable facts. Since the theory of cytogenesis gave extremely important in the process of reproduction of the cell nucleus, it was natural that Virchow paid a lot of attention to it. But he came to different conclusions and argued that it was precisely during cell reproduction that the nucleus could not be detected in it. However, he repeatedly emphasized that cells that completely lose their nuclei are not viable. He directly wrote: “From the connection of the core and the shell, that morphological structure arises that can always be recognized in all kinds of living forms, both plant and animal, and which is the substrate of all life processes.”
Having debunked cytogenesis and put in its place the process of cell division as the only way its reproduction, Virchow believed that he not only did not refute the cell theory, but, on the contrary, laid a solid foundation for it. He wrote that since unity and characteristic features life can be found only in a constantly repeating cellular organization, then one should conclude that the structure of any living creature of any significant size, the so-called individual, should be characterized as a kind of “ collective organization”, which will give the body a kind of “social” nature. He emphasized that all attempts to find any other organic elements that could be put in place of the cell remain futile, therefore the emergence of higher plants and animals should be considered as a process of progressive summation of more or smaller number cells. Thus, the organism is a multitude of individual independent units, placed in their life activities in close dependence on each other. However, such a unit (cell), according to Virchow’s idea, is characterized by independent vital activity, and although it receives incentives for this activity from other parts, it still performs all its functions independently.
This system of Virchow’s ideas, which is a further development of Schwann’s cell theory, is called theory of "cellular society", or theory of the "cellular state". It should be noted, however, that the formulations of these ideas by later researchers sound much more mechanistic than by Virchow himself.
In the light of the presented ideas, it is clear why Virchow attached such great fundamental importance to the law “every cell from a cell.” After all, in this way the law of continuity of development is established, and first of all, the most convincing evidence is given in favor of recognizing the cell as an elementary living structure.
They often talk about the Schwann-Virchow cell theory, and this is absolutely correct, since it was Virchow who revised everything general provisions this theory in the light of new facts. On the other hand, using the material of pathological human anatomy, of which he is rightfully considered one of the founders, he showed the progressiveness of the new (cellular) approach to these problems in comparison with previous speculative theories. It was no coincidence that Virchow called his book “Cellular Pathology”. The ideas presented in it were the banner under which the pathology of the 19th century. has achieved enormous success.
Virchow was an outstanding reformer of theoretical and practical medicine; his cellular pathology replaced humoral pathology, the most famous representative of which was the Austrian pathologist Karl Rokitansky (1804-1878). This is Virchow’s great service to science and humanity, this is the progressive significance of his cell theory in the middle and end of the last century. The cell theory gave pathologists (as well as biologists) a certain guiding point of view, completely correct in a number of respects, although in many ways not exhaustive, and methodologically completely imperfect.
Further development of biological knowledge required a radical revision of cell theory as a whole and, above all, the establishment of new ideas about the nature of the cell itself. This revision of the fundamentals of the doctrine of the cell ultimately led to the refutation of the guiding idea of that time - the theory of the “cellular state”.
Often, when criticizing the cell theory in the form in which Virchow formulated it, it is pointed out that the law “every cell from a cell” is, as it were, exclusive evolutionary view about historical origin cells. From our point of view, such an interpretation is arbitrary. The law of succession of cell origin states a widespread phenomenon in the organic world. This is, first of all, a statement of fact, and Virchow’s contemporaries correctly noted that its reliability is the same as the reliability of the law “everything living is from living things.” The greatest histologist of that time, Franz Leydig (1857), for example, wrote: “Where and how the first cell arose is as difficult to solve through research as the question of where man came from: we are convinced that cells, like people, arise only by reproduction, that is, they come only from each other. Spontaneous cell generation cannot be proven.”
It should be noted that the quoted lines were written back in 1857, i.e., before the appearance in 1859 of “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Question about evolutionary origin Virchow did not create cells at all, so he cannot be criticized on this level. The question in its entire breadth was first posed only in 1866 by E. Haeckel (1834-1919).
With his appearance, he split medicine into two historical eras - before the discovery of cellular pathology and after. The revolution that Rudolf Virchow made in medicine was the recognition of the untenable basic theory about the causes of diseases, which had dominated medicine since the time of Hippocrates - humoral pathology. This trend has been maintained for centuries, and other leading doctors up to mid-19th century. The essence of the humoral theory is that the cause of pathologies is an imbalance of fluids (blood, lymph, various mucus). The name “humoral” comes from the Latin humor - liquid. This theory has changed over time, but its basic principle has remained the same. Virchow's contemporary Karl Rokitansky was a leading representative of the humoral theory. He believed that change chemical composition blood and other body fluids leads to diseases. An imbalance in the chemical composition of body fluids leads to a breakdown in the nutrition of tissues and organs. It causes the deposition in various parts of the body of a certain formation that does not have a structure, from which pathogenic cellular forms grow over time. There was a sound grain in Rokitansky’s reasoning, which was confirmed over time, and some of his ideas remain relevant to this day. The disease, according to his theory, affects the entire body, and changes in tissues are a consequence of the disease.
It is necessary to mention another theory that existed at that time and opposed the humoral one - iatromechanical. Then it was the second main theory about the causes of diseases and was based on knowledge of mathematics and physics.
Virchow struck crushing blow on the fundamentals of medicine: he completely smashed all the arguments for the “theory of liquids”, forcing him to agree with the scientific conclusions of his fiercest opponent, K. Rokitansky. It should be noted that Virchow’s theory was recognized and supported by leading doctors around the world. Thus, the speculative nature of the humoral theory was rejected under pressure scientific facts, which led Virchow to the creation of the theory of cellular (cellular) pathology.
Virchow’s path to this discovery, which revolutionized medicine, is interesting.
A scientist of fantastic productivity and rare ability to work, Rudolf Virchow was born in 1821 in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now divided into German and Polish halves) into an unremarkable merchant family. The young man received a standard gymnasium education and in due time entered the Berlin Medical-Surgical Institute, where he was lucky enough to study under the supervision of the famous neurophysiologist I. P. Müller. The future brilliant minds of medicine studied with him on the course - Hermann Helmholtz, Theodor Schwann, deeply immersed in cell theory, Dubois-Reymond, Karl Ludwig are scientists who have the honor of great discoveries in the field of nervous and cellular systems.
At the age of 22, Rudolf Virchow had already defended his doctoral dissertation, after which he was appointed a research assistant at the oldest Charité clinic in Berlin, where he simultaneously served as an assistant to a pathologist. It was here that his talent as an observer, the curiosity of a scientist and the clear mind of a logician developed. He practically never parted with his microscope, studying all available pathological processes, various stages diseases, changes in tissues, carefully recording and systematizing observations. They say he almost went blind. It took him three years to discover the existence of a brain cell that no one suspected, which he called glia (from the ancient Greek glia - glue). Before Virchow, the activity of the central nervous system was explained through neurons, which were assigned all functions - from the regulation of the speech apparatus to the control of organs. Today medicine knows that the functioning of neurons and their accompanying functions, as well as the production of neuronal cells, belongs to glial cells. They make up 40% of the entire central nervous system and are responsible for the metabolic processes of neurons. Rudolf Virchow discovered the connecting function of glial cells for neurons. Therefore, the name of new cells comes from the ancient Greek - “glue”. A year later, Virchow was elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences for his significant achievements in the field of medicine.
Despite his passion for pathological research, Virchow, versatile and inquisitive, socially active and searching, could not help but react to the events in Europe in 1848. How progressive thinking person Virchow actively supported the revolution and new people's liberation civil ideals. His position did not go unnoticed by the German government, and the scientist was sent into conditional exile, away from the center of action - to the University of Würzburg, where he took the position of professor in the department of pathology. The revolution was suppressed, political activity died down, and almost ten years later the professor received his much-awaited appointment at the University of Berlin to the department of pathology created especially for him. Soon Virchow founded the pathology museum and the pathological-anatomical museum, which he headed permanently until the end of his days.
A year before his triumphant return to the University of Berlin, at the age of 34, he published his ideas about cell theory in a separate journal article. And three years later, in 1858, Professor Virchow published two volumes of a book in which he combined his scientific observations and knowledge. The work was called “Cellular pathology as a doctrine based on physiological and pathological histology.” He also published the lecture portion of his works and, in fact, announced the creation of a new approach in medicine. The terms with which he operated are still used by doctors. For example, Virchow described the pathological processes characteristic of a disease that he called “thrombosis.” He also characterized leukemia (degeneration of blood cells into malignant ones) and described embolism (blockage of veins and blood vessels by foreign particles - gas bubbles, fat, blood clots). The book was of enormous importance for the entire medical community. For several decades it has been the main source of medical theory throughout the world. In Russia, its translation was published a year after its release in Germany.
Cellular, or cellular, theory, which revolutionized medical world, consisted of a revolutionary view of the pathological process. Pathology was explained as an altered life of minimal microorganisms - cells. Each cell was recognized as having full viability in autonomous conditions. Thus, the body was a kind of vessel filled with an abundance of life-giving cells. The famous Virchow formula said: every cell is from a cell. This explained the ability of cells to reproduce and multiply, that is, to divide. Virchow called a disease a violation of the living conditions of cells. An imbalance in the state of the cell leads to the development of a pathological process.
The always conservative medical community greeted such a revolutionary view of established theories with great distrust. Sechenov considered Virchow's idea of an organism as a union of autonomously viable organisms to be a great misconception. He considered the scientist's cellular principle to be false. However, Botkin supported Virchow's cellular theory. Modern science pays tribute to the historical value of the cell theory, but does not recognize its one-dimensionality and unification. A broader approach using humoral and neural theories, as well as some provisions from cellular pathology, is considered correct.
Virchow made an invaluable contribution to science by changing the methods of studying the origin of pathologies. Any conclusions must be scientifically substantiated and reasoned, while empirical methods, often formed by religious-existential views, should be rejected for lack of evidence.
Many of Virchow’s works are devoted to the causes of common and little-studied diseases - tumors, tuberculosis, and various types of inflammation. Virchow discovered the principle of the spread of infectious diseases in the body. He argued that the main role in the development of an infectious disease belongs to the body's reaction to the pathogen.
Virchow's productivity as a scientist is reflected in his numerous works on anthropology. For example, it is he who belongs to the classification of the structure of skulls. He also found that the shape of the skull depends on the sutures applied. The scientist always had a keen interest in archeology and even participated in the excavations of Troy. The result of his expedition were articles in historical magazines, including those translated into Russian.
It is noteworthy that Rudolf Virchow was an honorary member of the Russian Pirogov Surgical Society. The professor visited Russia several times to give lectures and published articles in Russian scientific periodicals. Virchow had a huge influence on the development of medicine in Russia; many works of famous Russian scientists are based on his research.
