Rudolf Virchow

He married Ferdinande Rosalie Mayer in Berlin in August 1850. The couple had six children.

Their three sons were Karl Virchow, born on August 1, 1851, Hans Virchow, born on September 10, 1852, went on to become an eminent anatomist and Ernst Virchow, born on January 24, 1858.

The three daughters of the couple were Adele Virchow born, on October 1, 1855, Marie Virchow, born on June 29, 1866 and Hanna Elisabeth Maria Virchow, born on May 10, 1873.

He was born on October 13, 1821, as the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow and Johanna Maria in the town of Schievelbein in Prussia (now known as Świdwin in Poland). His father was a farmer and a treasurer of Schievelbein.

His did his elementary schooling in Schievelbein. He was a brilliant student and a class topper since childhood. He was fluent in many languages including German, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1835 he joined ‘Gymnasium’, a high school in Koslinka and studied theology.

He graduated from ‘Gymnasium’ in 1839 writing a dissertation, ‘A Life Full of Work and Toil is not a Burden but a Benediction’. Although he wanted to become a preacher, his weak voice led him to drop the idea and pursued career in medicine.

He was awarded a military fellowship in 1839 to study at Berlin’s ‘Friedrich-Wilhelms Institute’ (now ‘Humboldt University of Berlin’) and graduated in 1843 as a doctor of medicine.

Soon after his graduation he worked under Johannes Peter Müller as a junior physician and later did his internship in Berlin’s ‘Charité Hospital’. In 1844, Virchow joined Robert Froriep, a prosector who was also editor of a journal that dealt specially with international work. He studied microscopy under Froriep and developed an interest in pathology. He acquired overview of progressive scientific ideas of England and France through the journals.

His scientific discoveries, contributions and path breaking medical investigations were priceless. He determined that the unusual increase of white blood cells in patients was actually a blood disease and his first scientific paper dealing with pathological descriptions of the disease was published in 1845. In 1847, he first termed the disease leukämie (now known as leukemia).

A systematic procedure of autopsy encompassing microscopic investigation and surgery of all parts of a dead body was first developed by him. Investigation and analysis of hair in criminal cases was first initiated by him though he later opined that evidence centred based on such analysis is inconclusive.

In 1846, he got through the medical licensure examination and became hospital prosector of ‘Charité Hospital’ succeeding Robert Froriep.

In 1847, he started a new journal along with friend Benno Reinhardt, the ‘Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie, und für klinische Medizin’ (now called the ‘Virchows Archiv’). After Reinhardt died in 1852, Virchow worked alone as the editor till he was alive.