190-434: Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow ( / ˈ v ɪər k oʊ , ˈ f ɪər x oʊ / VEER -koh, FEER -khoh , German: [ˈʁuːdɔlf ˈvɪʁço, - ˈfɪʁço] ; 13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology " and as the founder of social medicine , and to his colleagues,
380-442: A common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace , he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection , in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding . Darwin has been described as one of
570-451: A genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree , in which "It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another", thereby discarding Lamarck's idea of independent lineages progressing to higher forms. While developing this intensive study of transmutation, Darwin became mired in more work. Still rewriting his Journal , he took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained
760-548: A " social science ". His most important influences could be noted in Latin America, where his disciples introduced his social medicine. For example, his student Max Westenhöfer became Director of Pathology at the medical school of the University of Chile , becoming the most influential advocate. One of Westenhöfer's students, Salvador Allende , through social and political activities based on Virchow's doctrine, became
950-482: A "fool". He described the original specimen of Neanderthal man as nothing but that of a deformed human. Virchow was born in Schievelbein, in eastern Pomerania , Prussia (now Świdwin , Poland ). He was the only child of Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow (1785–1865) and Johanna Maria née Hesse (1785–1857). His father was a farmer and the city treasurer. Academically brilliant, he always topped his classes and
1140-562: A 230-page "Essay", to be expanded with his research results if he died prematurely. In November, the anonymously published sensational best-seller Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation brought wide interest in transmutation. Darwin scorned its amateurish geology and zoology, but carefully reviewed his own arguments. Controversy erupted, and it continued to sell well despite contemptuous dismissal by scientists. Darwin completed his third geological book in 1846. He now renewed
1330-845: A Bachelor of Arts degree as the first step towards becoming an Anglican country parson . Darwin was unqualified for Cambridge's Tripos exams and was required instead to join the ordinary degree course. He preferred riding and shooting to studying. During the first few months of Darwin's enrolment at Christ's College, his second cousin William Darwin Fox was still studying there. Fox impressed him with his butterfly collection, introducing Darwin to entomology and influencing him to pursue beetle collecting. He did this zealously and had some of his finds published in James Francis Stephens ' Illustrations of British entomology (1829–1932). Through Fox, Darwin became
1520-673: A Treasury grant of £1,000 to sponsor this multi-volume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle , a sum equivalent to about £115,000 in 2021. He stretched the funding to include his planned books on geology, and agreed to unrealistic dates with the publisher. As the Victorian era began, Darwin pressed on with writing his Journal , and in August 1837 began correcting printer's proofs . As Darwin worked under pressure, his health suffered. On 20 September, he had "an uncomfortable palpitation of
1710-591: A beginning to each crop of species". Darwin's book The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs on his theory of atoll formation was published in May 1842 after more than three years of work, and he then wrote his first "pencil sketch" of his theory of natural selection. To escape the pressures of London, the family moved to rural Down House in Kent in September. On 11 January 1844, Darwin mentioned his theorising to
1900-547: A book on geology. When they reached Brazil, Darwin was delighted by the tropical forest , but detested the sight of slavery there , and disputed this issue with FitzRoy. The survey continued to the south in Patagonia . They stopped at Bahía Blanca , and in cliffs near Punta Alta Darwin made a major find of fossil bones of huge extinct mammals beside modern seashells, indicating recent extinction with no signs of change in climate or catastrophe. He found bony plates like
2090-718: A break and went "geologising" in Scotland. He visited Glen Roy in glorious weather to see the parallel "roads" cut into the hillsides at three heights. He later published his view that these were marine-raised beaches, but then had to accept that they were shorelines of a proglacial lake . Fully recuperated, he returned to Shrewsbury in July 1838. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts about marriage, career and prospects on two scraps of paper, one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry" . Advantages under "Marry" included "constant companion and
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#17327829311162280-471: A calm spell. On their first stop ashore at St Jago in Cape Verde, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells. FitzRoy had given him the first volume of Charles Lyell 's Principles of Geology , which set out uniformitarian concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods, and Darwin saw things Lyell's way, theorising and thinking of writing
2470-512: 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 . Virchow founded the medical fields of cellular pathology and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His most important work in
2660-562: A close friend and follower of botany professor John Stevens Henslow . He met other leading parson-naturalists who saw scientific work as religious natural theology , becoming known to these dons as "the man who walks with Henslow". When his own exams drew near, Darwin applied himself to his studies and was delighted by the language and logic of William Paley 's Evidences of Christianity (1795). In his final examination in January 1831, Darwin did well, coming tenth out of 178 candidates for
2850-423: A co-founder and member of the liberal party Deutsche Fortschrittspartei , he was a leading political antagonist of Bismarck. He was opposed to Bismarck's excessive military budget, which angered Bismarck sufficiently that he challenged Virchow to a duel in 1865. Virchow declined because he considered dueling an uncivilized way to solve a conflict. Various English-language sources purport a different version of events,
3040-400: A colleague Benno Reinhardt in 1847. He edited alone after Reinhardt's death in 1852 till his own. This journal published critical articles based on the criterion that no papers would be published that contained outdated, untested, dogmatic or speculative ideas. Unlike his German peers, Virchow had great faith in clinical observation, animal experimentation (to determine causes of diseases and
3230-412: A copy of his journal for his family. He had some expertise in geology, beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates, but in all other areas, was a novice and ably collected specimens for expert appraisal. Despite suffering badly from seasickness, Darwin wrote copious notes while on board the ship. Most of his zoology notes are about marine invertebrates, starting with plankton collected during
3420-656: A distinct German ethnic identity began to emerge among at least some them living within the Holy Roman Empire. However, variants of the same term were also used in the Low Countries , for the related dialects of what is still called Dutch in English, which is now a national language of the Netherlands and Belgium . The first information about the peoples living in what is now Germany was provided by
3610-592: A diverse group, dominating a much larger area than Germany, stretching to the Vistula in the east, and Scandinavia in the north. German ethnicity began to emerge in medieval times among the descendants of those Germanic peoples who had lived under heavy Roman influence between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. This included Franks , Frisians , Saxons , Thuringii , Alemanni and Baiuvarii - all of whom spoke related dialects of West Germanic . These peoples had come under
3800-482: A falling-out between the two. 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. Virchow's cellular theory was encapsulated in the epigram Omnis cellula e cellula ("all cells (come) from cells"), which he published in 1855. (The epigram
3990-596: A fascination and expertise in marine invertebrates, dating back to his student days with Grant, by dissecting and classifying the barnacles he had collected on the voyage, enjoying observing beautiful structures and thinking about comparisons with allied structures. In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed, but would not commit himself and questioned Darwin's opposition to continuing acts of creation . In an attempt to improve his chronic ill health, Darwin went in 1849 to Dr. James Gully 's Malvern spa and
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#17327829311164180-529: A fortnight mapping strata in Wales. After leaving Sedgwick in Wales, Darwin spent a few days with student friends at Barmouth . He returned home on 29 August to find a letter from Henslow proposing him as a suitable (if unfinished) naturalist for a self-funded supernumerary place on HMS Beagle with captain Robert FitzRoy , a position for a gentleman rather than "a mere collector". The ship
4370-532: A freed black slave who had accompanied Charles Waterton in the South American rainforest . In Darwin's second year at the university, he joined the Plinian Society , a student natural-history group featuring lively debates in which radical democratic students with materialistic views challenged orthodox religious concepts of science. He assisted Robert Edmond Grant 's investigations of
4560-473: A friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time". Having decided in favour of marriage, he discussed it with his father, then went to visit his cousin Emma on 29 July. At this time he did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice, he mentioned his ideas on transmutation. He married Emma on 29 January 1839 and they were
4750-530: A giant capybara . The armour fragments were actually from Glyptodon , a huge armadillo-like creature, as Darwin had initially thought. These extinct creatures were related to living species in South America. In mid-December, Darwin took lodgings in Cambridge to arrange expert classification of his collections, and prepare his own research for publication. Questions of how to combine his diary into
4940-556: A giant version of the armour on local armadillos . From a jaw and tooth he identified the gigantic Megatherium , then from Cuvier's description thought the armour was from this animal. The finds were shipped to England, and scientists found the fossils of great interest. In Patagonia, Darwin came to wrongly believe the territory was devoid of reptiles. On rides with gauchos into the interior to explore geology and collect more fossils, Darwin gained social, political and anthropological insights into both native and colonial people at
5130-506: A great name among the Naturalists of Europe". On 2 October 1836, Beagle anchored at Falmouth , Cornwall. Darwin promptly made the long coach journey to Shrewsbury to visit his home and see relatives. He then hurried to Cambridge to see Henslow, who advised him on finding available naturalists to catalogue Darwin's animal collections and to take on the botanical specimens. Darwin's father organised investments, enabling his son to be
5320-428: 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. 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 ). In 1857, he
5510-410: 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
5700-654: 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 ). 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. Immediately on graduation, he became subordinate physician to Müller. But shortly after, he joined
5890-515: A minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences , explaining the diversity of life . Darwin was born in Shrewsbury , Shropshire, on 12 February 1809, at his family's home, The Mount . He
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6080-443: 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. 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," and declared that "it
6270-539: A programmer of laws. Darwin stayed with his freethinking brother Erasmus, part of this Whig circle and a close friend of the writer Harriet Martineau , who promoted the Malthusianism that underpinned the controversial Whig Poor Law reforms to stop welfare from causing overpopulation and more poverty. As a Unitarian, she welcomed the radical implications of transmutation of species , promoted by Grant and younger surgeons influenced by Geoffroy . Transmutation
6460-591: A sand beach. He theorised that as the land rose, oceanic islands sank, and coral reefs round them grew to form atolls . On the geologically new Galápagos Islands , Darwin looked for evidence attaching wildlife to an older "centre of creation", and found mockingbirds allied to those in Chile but differing from island to island. He heard that slight variations in the shape of tortoise shells showed which island they came from, but failed to collect them, even after eating tortoises taken on board as food. In Australia,
6650-517: A self-funded gentleman scientist , and an excited Darwin went around the London institutions being fêted and seeking experts to describe the collections. British zoologists at the time had a huge backlog of work, due to natural history collecting being encouraged throughout the British Empire, and there was a danger of specimens just being left in storage. Charles Lyell eagerly met Darwin for
6840-579: A series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species . By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact . However, many initially favoured competing explanations that gave only
7030-510: A shared descent, culture, and history. Völkisch elements identified Germanness with "a shared Christian heritage" and "biological essence", to the exclusion of the notable Jewish minority. After the Holocaust and the downfall of Nazism, "any confident sense of Germanness had become suspect, if not impossible". East Germany and West Germany both sought to build up an identity on historical or ideological lines, distancing themselves both from
7220-719: A similarity between farmers picking the best stock in selective breeding, and a Malthusian Nature selecting from chance variants so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected", thinking this comparison "a beautiful part of my theory". He later called his theory natural selection , an analogy with what he termed the "artificial selection" of selective breeding. On 11 November, he returned to Maer and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, then in exchanges of loving letters she showed how she valued his openness in sharing their differences, while expressing her strong Unitarian beliefs and concerns that his honest doubts might separate them in
7410-468: A time of revolution, and learnt that two types of rhea had separate but overlapping territories. Further south, he saw stepped plains of shingle and seashells as raised beaches at a series of elevations. He read Lyell's second volume and accepted its view of "centres of creation" of species, but his discoveries and theorising challenged Lyell's ideas of smooth continuity and of extinction of species. Three Fuegians on board, who had been seized during
7600-417: A year before he died; in his own words: 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. Virchow's anti-evolutionism, like that of Albert von Kölliker and Thomas Brown , did not come from religion, since he was not a believer. Virchow believed that Haeckel's monist propagation of social Darwinism
7790-403: Is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale. Medicine, as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their actual solution... Science for its own sake usually means nothing more than science for the sake of
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7980-467: 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 . He noted that blood clots in the pulmonary artery originate first from venous thrombi, stating in 1859: [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
8170-624: Is an important part of German culture, particularly in Southern Germany and the Rhineland . An important German festival is the Oktoberfest . A steadily shrinking majority of Germans are Christians . About a third are Roman Catholics , while one third adheres to Protestantism . Another third does not profess any religion. Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated by many Germans. The number of Muslims
8360-591: Is based on High German and Central German , and is the first or second language of most Germans, but notably not the Volga Germans . Low German , which is often considered to be a distinct language from both German and Dutch, was the historical language of most of northern Germany, and is still spoken by many Germans, often as a second language. It is estimated that there are over 100 million Germans today, most of whom live in Germany, where they constitute
8550-427: 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. 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
8740-511: Is growing. There is also a notable Jewish community, which was decimated in the Holocaust . Remembering the Holocaust is an important part of German culture. A German ethnic identity began to emerge during the early medieval period . These peoples came to be referred to by the High German term diutisc , which means "ethnic" or "relating to the people". The German endonym Deutsche is derived from this word. In subsequent centuries,
8930-539: Is inconclusive. His testimony runs: [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. 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
9120-471: Is known as a Malthusian catastrophe . Darwin was well-prepared to compare this to Augustin de Candolle 's "warring of the species" of plants and the struggle for existence among wildlife, explaining how numbers of a species kept roughly stable. As species always breed beyond available resources, favourable variations would make organisms better at surviving and passing the variations on to their offspring, while unfavourable variations would be lost. He wrote that
9310-470: Is nothing else but medicine on a large scale". His participation in the Revolution of 1848 led to his expulsion from Charité the next year. He then published a newspaper Die Medizinische Reform ( The Medical Reform ). He took the first Chair of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Würzburg in 1849. After seven years, in 1856, Charité reinstated him to its new Institute for Pathology. He co-founded
9500-474: 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. (The cancer type was correctly identified only in 1948 by Lauren Ackerman .) Virchow analysed the four key symptoms of inflammation (redness, swelling, heat and pain) and postulated that inflammation includes several inflammatory processes. He introduced
9690-634: Is published by German Anthropological Association and the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, the societies which he also founded. Virchow was the first to describe and name diseases such as leukemia , chordoma , ochronosis , embolism , and thrombosis . He coined biological terms such as " neuroglia ", " agenesis ", " parenchyma ", " osteoid ", " amyloid degeneration ", and " spina bifida "; terms such as Virchow's node , Virchow–Robin spaces , Virchow–Seckel syndrome , and Virchow's triad are named after him. His description of
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#17327829311169880-609: Is quite certain that man did not descend from the apes." The Neanderthals were later accepted as distinct species of humans, Homo neanderthalensis . 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. His campaign
10070-616: Is ranked third among countries of the world in the number of total recipients. The English term Germans is derived from the ethnonym Germani , which was used for Germanic peoples in ancient times. Since the early modern period, it has been the most common name for the Germans in English. The term Germans may also be applied to any citizens, natives or inhabitants of Germany, regardless of whether they are considered to have German ethnicity. In some contexts, people of German descent are also called Germans. In historical discussions
10260-497: The 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 . As president, Virchow frequently contributed to and co-edited
10450-621: The Cold War , but were reunified in 1990. Although there were fears that the reunified Germany might resume nationalist politics, the country is today widely regarded as a "stablizing actor in the heart of Europe" and a "promoter of democratic integration". German is the native language of most Germans. It is the key marker of German ethnic identity. German is a West Germanic language closely related to Frisian (in particular North Frisian and Saterland Frisian ), Luxembourgish , English , Dutch , and Low German . Modern Standard German
10640-818: The Congress of Vienna (1815), and left most of the German states loosely united under the German Confederation . The confederation came to be dominated by the Catholic Austrian Empire , to the dismay of many German nationalists, who saw the German Confederation as an inadequate answer to the German Question . Throughout the 19th century, Prussia continued to grow in power. In 1848 , German revolutionaries set up
10830-622: The Kingdom of Poland , where they came to constitute a significant proportion of the population in many urban centers such as Gdańsk . During the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights began conquering the Old Prussians , and established what would eventually become the powerful German state of Prussia . Further south, Bohemia and Hungary developed as kingdoms with their own non-German speaking elites. The Austrian March on
11020-686: The Linnean Society of London . Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of natural diversification. In 1871, he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). His research on plants was published in
11210-706: The Middle Danube stopped expanding eastwards towards Hungary in the 11th century. Under Ottokar II , Bohemia (corresponding roughly to modern Czechia) became a kingdom within the empire, and even managed to take control of Austria, which was German-speaking. However, the late 13th century saw the election of Rudolf I of the House of Habsburg to the imperial throne, and he was able to acquire Austria for his own family. The Habsburgs would continue to play an important role in European history for centuries afterwards. Under
11400-554: The Narrative were resolved at the end of the month when FitzRoy accepted Broderip's advice to make it a separate volume, and Darwin began work on his Journal and Remarks . Darwin's first paper showed that the South American landmass was slowly rising, and with Lyell's enthusiastic backing he read it to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837. On the same day, he presented his mammal and bird specimens to
11590-530: The Romantic era saw a notable flourishing of German culture. Germans of this period who contributed significantly to the arts and sciences include the writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , Johann Gottfried Herder , Friedrich Hölderlin , E. T. A. Hoffmann , Heinrich Heine , Novalis and the Brothers Grimm , the philosopher Immanuel Kant , the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel ,
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#173278293111611780-602: The Royal Society 's Royal Medal, and it made his reputation as a biologist . Upon the conclusion of his research, Darwin declared "I hate a barnacle as no man ever did before." In 1854, he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London , gaining postal access to its library. He began a major reassessment of his theory of species, and in November realised that divergence in the character of descendants could be explained by them becoming adapted to "diversified places in
11970-718: 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). Virchow
12160-942: The Zoological Society . The ornithologist John Gould soon announced that the Galápagos birds that Darwin had thought a mixture of blackbirds , " gros-beaks " and finches , were, in fact, twelve separate species of finches . On 17 February, Darwin was elected to the Council of the Geological Society, and Lyell's presidential address presented Owen's findings on Darwin's fossils, stressing geographical continuity of species as supporting his uniformitarian ideas. Early in March, Darwin moved to London to be near this work, joining Lyell's social circle of scientists and experts such as Charles Babbage , who described God as
12350-562: The celtic La Tène culture . However, the Germanic languages associated with later Germanic peoples were approaching the Rhine area since at least the 2nd century BC. The resulting demographic situation reported by Caesar was that migrating Celts and Germanic peoples were moving into areas which threatened the Alpine regions and the Romans. The modern German language is a descendant of
12540-521: The first Beagle voyage then given Christian education in England, were returning with a missionary. Darwin found them friendly and civilised, yet at Tierra del Fuego he met "miserable, degraded savages", as different as wild from domesticated animals. He remained convinced that, despite this diversity, all humans were interrelated with a shared origin and potential for improvement towards civilisation. Unlike his scientist friends, he now thought there
12730-519: The marsupial rat-kangaroo and the platypus seemed so unusual that Darwin thought it was almost as though two distinct Creators had been at work. He found the Aborigines "good-humoured & pleasant", their numbers depleted by European settlement. FitzRoy investigated how the atolls of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands had formed, and the survey supported Darwin's theorising. FitzRoy began writing
12920-598: The ordinary degree. Darwin had to stay at Cambridge until June 1831. He studied Paley's Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (first published in 1802), which made an argument for divine design in nature , explaining adaptation as God acting through laws of nature . He read John Herschel 's new book, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831), which described
13110-610: The "Pope of medicine". Virchow studied medicine at the Friedrich Wilhelm University under Johannes Peter Müller . While working at the Charité hospital, his investigation of the 1847–1848 typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia laid the foundation for public health in Germany, and paved his political and social careers. From it, he coined a well known aphorism: "Medicine is a social science, and politics
13300-596: The "final cause of all this wedging, must be to sort out proper structure, & adapt it to changes", so that "One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying force into every kind of adapted structure into the gaps of in the economy of nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones." This would result in the formation of new species. As he later wrote in his Autobiography : In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate
13490-409: The "humiliation of Versailles", continuing traditions of authoritarian and antisemitic ideologies, and the Great Depression all contributed to the rise of Austrian-born Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who after coming to power democratically in the early 1930s, abolished the Weimar Republic and formed the totalitarian Third Reich . In his quest to subjugate Europe, six million Jews were murdered in
13680-528: The 10th century, forming the core of the Holy Roman Empire . In subsequent centuries the political power and population of this empire grew considerably. It expanded eastwards, and eventually a substantial number of Germans migrated further eastwards into Eastern Europe . The empire itself was politically divided between many small princedoms, cities and bishoprics. Following the Reformation in
13870-446: The 16th century, many of these states found themselves in bitter conflict concerning the rise of Protestantism . In the 19th century, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, and German nationalism began to grow. At the same time however, the concept of German nationality became more complex. The multiethnic Kingdom of Prussia incorporated most Germans into its German Empire in 1871, and a substantial additional number of Germans were in
14060-782: The 1860s.) 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. 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. In addition it became clear that prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin , reduced cancer risk. Experiments also show that drugs that block inflammation simultaneously inhibit tumour formation and development. Virchow
14250-458: 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. He analysed
14440-511: The 29th President of Chile (1970–1973). Virchow made himself known as a pronounced pro-democracy progressive in the year of revolutions in Germany (1848). His political views are evident in his Report on the Typhus Outbreak of Upper Silesia , where he states that the outbreak could not be solved by treating individual patients with drugs or with minor changes in food, housing, or clothing laws, but only through radical action to promote
14630-491: 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. Virchow published his first scientific paper in 1845, giving
14820-805: 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 ". He also introduced scientific terms such as " chromatin ", " agenesis ", " parenchyma ", " osteoid ", " amyloid degeneration ", and " spina bifida ". 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. Virchow
15010-583: The Elbe river. It is likely that first Germanic consonant shift , which defines the Germanic language family, occurred during this period. The earlier Nordic Bronze Age of southern Scandinavia also shows definite population and material continuities with the Jastorf Culture, but it is unclear whether these indicate ethnic continuity. Under Caesar's successors, the Romans began to conquer and control
15200-667: The German inventor Johannes Gutenberg contributed to the formation of a new understanding of faith and reason. At this time, the German monk Martin Luther pushed for reforms within the Catholic Church. Luther's efforts culminated in the Protestant Reformation . Religious schism was a leading cause of the Thirty Years' War , a conflict that tore apart the Holy Roman Empire and its neighbours, leading to
15390-456: The German lands were relatively decentralized, leading to the maintenance of a number of strong regional identities. The German nationalist movement emerged among German intellectuals in the late 18th century. They saw the Germans as a people united by language and advocated the unification of all Germans into a single nation state, which was partially achieved in 1871. By the late 19th and early 20th century, German identity came to be defined by
15580-472: The German lands. The Habsburg dynasty managed to maintain their grip upon the imperial throne in the early modern period . While the empire itself continued to be largely de-centralized, the Habsburgs own personal power increased outside of the core German lands. Charles V personally inherited control of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the wealthy low countries (roughly modern Belgium, Luxembourg and
15770-526: The German language is widely seen as the primary, though not exclusive, criterion of German identity. Estimates on the total number of Germans in the world range from 100 to 150 million, most of whom live in Germany. The history of Germans as an ethnic group began with the separation of a distinct Kingdom of Germany from the eastern part of the Frankish Empire under the Ottonian dynasty in
15960-789: The German states, including the German emperor Wilhelm II , were overthrown in the November Revolution which led to the establishment of the Weimar Republic . The Germans of the Austrian side of the Dual Monarchy proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria , and sought to be incorporated into the German state, but this was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Saint-Germain . What many Germans saw as
16150-580: The Germanic languages which spread during the Iron Age and Roman era. Scholars generally agree that it is possible to speak of Germanic languages existing as early as 500 BCE. These Germanic languages are believed to have dispersed towards the Rhine from the direction of the Jastorf culture , which was itself a Celtic influenced culture that existed in the Pre-Roman Iron Age , in the region near
16340-480: The Germans. By the late 18th century, German intellectuals such as Johann Gottfried Herder articulated the concept of a German identity rooted in language, and this notion helped spark the German nationalist movement, which sought to unify the Germans into a single nation state . Eventually, shared ancestry, culture and language (though not religion) came to define German nationalism. The Napoleonic Wars ended with
16530-615: The Holocaust led to World War II in which the Nazi regime was defeated by allied powers , led by the United States , the United Kingdom , and the former Soviet Union . In the aftermath of Germany's defeat in the war, the country was occupied and once again partitioned. Millions of Germans were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe. In 1990, West Germany and East Germany were reunified . In modern times, remembrance of
16720-449: The Holocaust . WWII resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians, while the German state was partitioned. About 12 million Germans had to flee or were expelled from Eastern Europe. Significant damage was also done to the German reputation and identity, which became far less nationalistic than it previously was. The German states of West Germany and East Germany became focal points of
16910-474: The Holocaust, known as Erinnerungskultur ("culture of remembrance"), has become an integral part of German identity. Owing to their long history of political fragmentation, Germans are culturally diverse and often have strong regional identities. Arts and sciences are an integral part of German culture , and the Germans have been represented by many prominent personalities in a significant number of disciplines, including Nobel prize laureates where Germany
17100-400: The Nazi past and each other. After German reunification in 1990, the political discourse was characterized by the idea of a "shared, ethnoculturally defined Germanness", and the general climate became increasingly xenophobic during the 1990s. Today, discussion on Germanness may stress various aspects, such as commitment to pluralism and the German constitution ( constitutional patriotism ), or
17290-701: The Netherlands), the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Sardinia, and the Dukedom of Milan. Of these, the Bohemian and Hungarian titles remained connected to the imperial throne for centuries, making Austria a powerful multilingual empire in its own right. On the other hand, the low countries went to the Spanish crown and continued to evolve separately from Germany. The introduction of printing by
17480-588: The October issue of 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". Virchow stated that teaching of evolution was "contrary to the conscience of the natural scientists, who reckons only with facts." The debate led Haeckel to write a full book Freedom in Science and Teaching in 1879. That year
17670-518: The Radical or Progressive party; and from 1880 to 1893, he was a member of the Reichstag . He worked to improve healthcare conditions for Berlin citizens, especially by working towards modern water and sewer systems. Virchow is credited as a founder of anthropology and of social medicine, frequently focusing on the fact that disease is never purely biological, but often socially derived or spread. As
17860-574: The Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar , who gave an account of his conquest of neighbouring Gaul in the 1st century BC. Gaul included parts of what is now Germany, west of the Rhine river. He specifically noted the potential future threat which could come from the related Germanic peoples ( Germani ) east of the river. Archaeological evidence shows that at the time of Caesar's invasion, both Gaul and Germanic regions had long been strongly influenced by
18050-618: The Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism . Robert Darwin, a freethinker , had baby Charles baptised in November 1809 in the Anglican St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury , but Charles and his siblings attended the local Unitarian Church with their mother. The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818, he joined his older brother Erasmus in attending
18240-453: The advancement of an entire population, which could be achieved only by "full and unlimited democracy" and "education, freedom and prosperity". These radical statements and his minor part in the revolution caused the government to remove him from his position in 1849, although within a year he was reinstated as prosector "on probation". Prosector was a secondary position in the hospital. This secondary position in Berlin convinced him to accept
18430-459: The afterlife. While he was house-hunting in London, bouts of illness continued and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." He found what they called "Macaw Cottage" (because of its gaudy interiors) in Gower Street , then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. On 24 January 1839, Darwin
18620-506: The anatomy and life cycle of marine invertebrates in the Firth of Forth , and on 27 March 1827 presented at the Plinian his own discovery that black spores found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech . One day, Grant praised Lamarck 's evolutionary ideas . Darwin was astonished by Grant's audacity, but had recently read similar ideas in his grandfather Erasmus' journals. Darwin
18810-661: The arts and crafts. In the late Middle Ages the German economy grew under the influence of urban centers, which increased in size and wealth and formed powerful leagues, such as the Hanseatic League and the Swabian League , in order to protect their interests, often through supporting the German kings in their struggles with the nobility. These urban leagues significantly contributed to the development of German commerce and banking. German merchants of Hanseatic cities settled in cities throughout Northern Europe beyond
19000-662: 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. 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
19190-437: The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , writing with melodramatic humour "it is like confessing a murder". Hooker replied, "There may, in my opinion, have been a series of productions on different spots, & also a gradual change of species. I shall be delighted to hear how you think that this change may have taken place, as no presently conceived opinions satisfy me on the subject." By July, Darwin had expanded his "sketch" into
19380-559: The building blocks of life were still considered to be the 21 tissues of Bichat, a concept described by the French physician Xavier Bichat . 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
19570-416: 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". More than a laboratory physician, Virchow was an impassioned advocate for social and political reform. His ideology involved social inequality as the cause of diseases that requires political actions, stating: Medicine
19760-560: The cells, not from outside pathogens. 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. 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." He postulated that germs were only using infected organs as habitats, but were not
19950-544: The chair of pathological anatomy at the medical school in the provincial town of Würzburg, where he continued his scientific research. Six years later, he had attained fame in scientific and medical circles, and was reinstated at Charité Hospital. In 1859, he became a member of the Municipal Council of Berlin and began his career as a civic reformer. Elected to the Prussian Diet in 1862, he became leader of
20140-420: The condition as leukämie . One on his autopsies in 1857 was the first description of vertebral disc rupture . 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. From his experience of post-mortem examinations of cadavers, he published his method in a small book in 1876. His book
20330-535: The death of millions of Germans. The terms of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) ending the war, included a major reduction in the central authority of the Holy Roman Emperor. Among the most powerful German states to emerge in the aftermath was Protestant Prussia , under the rule of the House of Hohenzollern . Charles V and his Habsburg dynasty defended Roman Catholicism. In the 18th century, German culture
20520-456: The dominance of the western Franks starting with Clovis I , who established control of the Romanized and Frankish population of Gaul in the 5th century, and began a process of conquering the peoples east of the Rhine. The regions long continued to be divided into " Stem duchies ", corresponding to the old ethnic designations. By the early 9th century AD, large parts of Europe were united under
20710-542: The duties of Secretary of the Geological Society. After initially declining the work, he accepted the post in March 1838. Despite the grind of writing and editing the Beagle reports, Darwin made remarkable progress on transmutation, taking every opportunity to question expert naturalists and, unconventionally, people with practical experience in selective breeding such as farmers and pigeon fanciers . Over time, his research drew on information from his relatives and children,
20900-481: 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
21090-409: 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,
21280-856: The end of World War I , Austria-Hungary and the German Empire were partitioned, resulting in many Germans becoming ethnic minorities in newly established countries. In the chaotic years that followed, Adolf Hitler became the dictator of Nazi Germany and embarked on a genocidal campaign to unify all Germans under his leadership. His Nazi movement defined Germans in a very specific way which included Austrians , Luxembourgers , eastern Belgians , and so-called Volksdeutsche , who were ethnic Germans elsewhere in Europe and globally. However, this Nazi conception expressly excluded German citizens of Jewish or Roma background. Nazi policies of military aggression and its persecution of those deemed non-Germans in
21470-549: The entire region between the Rhine and the Elbe which centuries later constituted the largest part of medieval Germany. These efforts were significantly hampered by the victory of a local alliance led by Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, which is considered a defining moment in German history. While the Romans were nevertheless victorious, rather than installing a Roman administration they controlled
21660-547: 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. 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
21850-403: The establishment of meat inspection, which was first adopted in Berlin. 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. 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
22040-713: The family butler, neighbours, colonists and former shipmates. He included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an orangutan in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its childlike behaviour. The strain took a toll, and by June he was being laid up for days on end with stomach problems, headaches and heart symptoms. For the rest of his life, he was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe boils , palpitations, trembling and other symptoms, particularly during times of stress, such as attending meetings or making social visits. The cause of Darwin's illness remained unknown, and attempts at treatment had only ephemeral success. On 23 June, he took
22230-483: The field was Cellular Pathology ( Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre ) published in 1858, as a collection of his lectures. This is regarded as the basis of modern medical science, and the "greatest advance which scientific medicine had made since its beginning." 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
22420-597: The first time on 29 October and soon introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen , who had the facilities of the Royal College of Surgeons to work on the fossil bones collected by Darwin. Owen's surprising results included other gigantic extinct ground sloths as well as the Megatherium Darwin had identified, a near complete skeleton of the unknown Scelidotherium and a hippopotamus -sized rodent -like skull named Toxodon resembling
22610-454: The formation of a united German Empire . In the years following unification, German society was radically changed by numerous processes, including industrialization, rationalization, secularization and the rise of capitalism. German power increased considerably and numerous overseas colonies were established. During this time, the German population grew considerably, and many emigrated to other countries (mainly North America), contributing to
22800-744: The growth of the German diaspora . Competition for colonies between the Great Powers contributed to the outbreak of World War I , in which the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires formed the Central Powers , an alliance that was ultimately defeated, with none of the empires comprising it surviving the aftermath of the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires were both dissolved and partitioned, resulting in millions of Germans becoming ethnic minorities in other countries. The monarchical rulers of
22990-500: 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". 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
23180-582: The heart", so his doctors urged him to "knock off all work" and live in the country for a few weeks. After visiting Shrewsbury, he joined his Wedgwood relatives at Maer Hall , Staffordshire, but found them too eager for tales of his travels to give him much rest. His charming, intelligent, and cultured cousin Emma Wedgwood , nine months older than Darwin, was nursing his invalid aunt. His uncle Josiah pointed out an area of ground where cinders had disappeared under loam and suggested that this might have been
23370-472: The highest aim of natural philosophy as understanding such laws through inductive reasoning based on observation, and Alexander von Humboldt 's Personal Narrative of scientific travels in 1799–1804. Inspired with "a burning zeal" to contribute, Darwin planned to visit Tenerife with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics. In preparation, he joined Adam Sedgwick 's geology course, then on 4 August travelled with him to spend
23560-432: The idea of a fifth symptom, functio laesa , the loss of function of inflamed tissues. 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 . Virchow
23750-575: 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. 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
23940-485: 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 °F for 10 minutes, the worms could not infect dogs or humans. He established that human roundworm infection occurs via contaminated pork. This directly led to
24130-505: The later control of powerful German dynasties it became an important region within modern Germany, and home to its modern capital, Berlin. German population also moved eastwards from the 11th century, in what is known as the Ostsiedlung . Over time, Slavic and German-speaking populations assimilated, meaning that many modern Germans have substantial Slavic ancestry. From the 12th century, many Germans settled as merchants and craftsmen in
24320-864: The leadership of Otto von Bismarck , Prussia expanded its sphere of influence and together with its German allies defeated Denmark in the Second Schleswig War and soon after Austria in the Austro-Prussian War , subsequently establishing the North German Confederation . In 1871, the Prussian coalition decisively defeated the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War , annexing the German speaking region of Alsace-Lorraine . After taking Paris, Prussia and their allies proclaimed
24510-406: The leadership of the Habsburgs the Holy Roman Empire itself remained weak, and by the late Middle Ages much of Lotharingia and Burgundy had come under the control of French dynasts, the House of Valois-Burgundy and House of Valois-Anjou . Step by step, Italy, Switzerland, Lorraine , and Savoy were no longer subject to effective imperial control. Trade increased and there was a specialization of
24700-541: The life cycle of a roundworm Trichinella spiralis influenced the practice of meat inspection. He developed the first systematic method of autopsy , and introduced hair analysis in forensic investigation. Opposing the germ theory of diseases, he rejected Ignaz Semmelweis 's idea of disinfecting. He was critical of what he described as "Nordic mysticism" regarding the Aryan race . As an anti-Darwinist , he called Charles Darwin an "ignoramus" and his own student Ernst Haeckel
24890-507: The long-term separation between the states of West Francia , Middle Francia and East Francia . Beginning with Henry the Fowler , non-Frankish dynasties also ruled the eastern kingdom, and under his son Otto I , East Francia, which was mostly German, constituted the core of the Holy Roman Empire . Also under control of this loosely controlled empire were the previously independent kingdoms of Italy , Burgundy , and Lotharingia . The latter
25080-613: The majority of the population. There are also sizable populations of Germans in Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Brazil, France, Kazakhstan, Russia, Argentina, Canada, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Australia, South Africa, Chile, Paraguay, and Namibia. The Germans are marked by great regional diversity, which makes identifying a single German culture quite difficult. The arts and sciences have for centuries been an important part of German identity. The Age of Enlightenment and
25270-480: The most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey . Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh ; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates . His studies at the University of Cambridge 's Christ's College from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for natural science . However, it
25460-518: The movement was acquiring "the character of a great struggle in the interest of humanity". He called it Kulturkampf ("culture struggle") during the discussion of Adalbert Falk 's May Laws ( Maigesetze ). Virchow was respected in Masonic circles, and according to one source may have been a freemason , though no official record of this has been found. Germans Germans ( German : Deutsche , pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃə] ) are
25650-528: The multiethnic kingdom of Austria-Hungary . During this time, a large number of Germans also emigrated to the New World , particularly to the United States , especially to present-day Pennsylvania . Large numbers also emigrated to Canada and Brazil , and they established sizable communities in New Zealand and Australia . The Russian Empire also included a substantial German population. Following
25840-580: The name appeared in the October 1866 issue of Virchows Archiv . Virchow was the first to analyse hair in criminal investigation, and made the first forensic report on it in 1861. 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
26030-444: The natives or inhabitants of Germany , or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language . The constitution of Germany , implemented in 1949 following the end of World War II , defines a German as a German citizen . During the 19th and much of the 20th century, discussions on German identity were dominated by concepts of a common language, culture, descent, and history. Today,
26220-448: The nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder . Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire, before going to the well-regarded University of Edinburgh Medical School with his brother Erasmus in October 1825. Darwin found lectures dull and surgery distressing, so he neglected his studies. He learned taxidermy in around 40 daily hour-long sessions from John Edmonstone ,
26410-544: The next 20 years. 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. 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
26600-594: The nobility for power. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Germans actively participated in five Crusades to "liberate" the Holy Land . From the beginnings of the kingdom, its dynasties also participated in a push eastwards into Slavic-speaking regions. At the Saxon Eastern March in the north, the Polabian Slavs east of the Elbe were conquered over generations of often brutal conflict. Under
26790-475: The noble families, who often sought to have weak kings elected in order to preserve their own independence. This prevented an early unification of the Germans. A warrior nobility dominated the feudal German society of the Middle Ages, while most of the German population consisted of peasants with few political rights. The church played an important role among Germans in the Middle Ages, and competed with
26980-533: The notion of a Kulturnation (nation sharing a common culture). The German language remains the primary criterion of modern German identity. Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( / ˈ d ɑːr w ɪ n / DAR -win ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist , geologist , and biologist , widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology . His proposition that all species of life have descended from
27170-433: The official Narrative of the Beagle voyages, and after reading Darwin's diary, he proposed incorporating it into the account. Darwin's Journal was eventually rewritten as a separate third volume, on geology and natural history. In Cape Town , South Africa, Darwin and FitzRoy met John Herschel, who had recently written to Lyell praising his uniformitarianism as opening bold speculation on "that mystery of mysteries,
27360-537: The opposite conviction." 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 original fossil in 1872, and presented his observations before the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte. He stated that the Neanderthal had not been
27550-496: The origin of species". Without telling Darwin, extracts from his letters to Henslow had been read to scientific societies, printed as a pamphlet for private distribution among members of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , and reported in magazines, including The Athenaeum . Darwin first heard of this at Cape Town, and at Ascension Island read of Sedgwick's prediction that Darwin "will have
27740-493: The painter Caspar David Friedrich , and the composers Johann Sebastian Bach , Ludwig van Beethoven , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , Johannes Brahms , Franz Schubert , Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner . Popular German dishes include brown bread and stew . Germans consume a high amount of alcohol , particularly beer, compared to other European peoples. Obesity is relatively widespread among Germans. Carnival (German: Karneval , Fasching , or Fastnacht )
27930-522: The parents of ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Continuing his research in London, Darwin's wide reading now included the sixth edition of Malthus 's An Essay on the Principle of Population . On 28 September 1838, he noted its assertion that human "population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio", a geometric progression so that population soon exceeds food supply in what
28120-552: The people who happen to be pursuing it. Knowledge which is unable to support action is not genuine – and how unsure is activity without understanding... If medicine is to fulfill her great task, then she must enter the political and social life... The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them. Virchow actively worked for social change to fight poverty and diseases. His methods involved pathological observations and statistical analyses. He called this new field of social medicine
28310-474: The political party Deutsche Fortschrittspartei , and was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives and won a seat in the Reichstag . His opposition to Otto von Bismarck 's financial policy resulted in duel challenge by the latter. However, Virchow supported Bismarck in his anti-Catholic campaigns, which he named Kulturkampf ("culture struggle"). A prolific writer, he produced more than 2000 scientific writings. Cellular Pathology (1858), regarded as
28500-407: 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!'" Virchow's ultimate opinion about evolution was reported
28690-573: The possibility that "one species does change into another" to explain the geographical distribution of living species such as the rheas, and extinct ones such as the strange extinct mammal Macrauchenia , which resembled a giant guanaco , a llama relative. Around mid-July, he recorded in his "B" notebook his thoughts on lifespan and variation across generations – explaining the variations he had observed in Galápagos tortoises , mockingbirds, and rheas. He sketched branching descent, and then
28880-555: The region indirectly for centuries, recruiting soldiers there, and playing the tribes off against each other. The early Germanic peoples were later famously described in more detail in Germania by the 1st century Roman historian Tacitus . At this time, the Germanic peoples, or Germani , were fragmented into a large number of peoples who were frequently in conflict with both the Roman Empire and one another. He described them as
29070-520: The replacement of extinct species by others" as "a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process". When organising his notes as the ship sailed home, Darwin wrote that, if his growing suspicions about the mockingbirds, the tortoises and the Falkland Islands fox were correct, "such facts undermine the stability of Species", then cautiously added "would" before "undermine". He later wrote that such facts "seemed to me to throw some light on
29260-591: The root of modern pathology, introduced the third dictum in cell theory : Omnis cellula e cellula ("All cells come from cells"), although this concept is now widely recognized as being plagiarized from Robert Remak . He was a co-founder of Physikalisch-Medizinische Gesellschaft in 1849 and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pathologie in 1897. He founded journals such as Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für Klinische Medicin (with Benno Reinhardt in 1847, later renamed Virchows Archiv ), and Zeitschrift für Ethnologie ( Journal of Ethnology ). The latter
29450-641: The rule of the Frankish leader Charlemagne , who expanded the Frankish empire in several directions including east of the Rhine, consolidating power over the Saxons and Frisians , and establishing the Carolingian Empire . Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo I in 800. In the generations after Charlemagne the empire was partitioned at the Treaty of Verdun (843), eventually resulting in
29640-445: The so-called "Sausage Duel". It has Virchow, being the one challenged and therefore entitled to choose the weapons, selecting two pork sausages, one loaded with Trichinella larvae, the other safe; Bismarck declined. However, there are no German-language documents confirming this version. Virchow supported Bismarck in an attempt to reduce the political and social influence of the Catholic Church, between 1871 and 1887. He remarked that
29830-410: The society's main journal Zeitschrift für Ethnologie ( Journal of Ethnology ), which Adolf Bastian, together with another student of Virchow, Robert Hartman , had founded in 1869. In 1870, he led a major excavation of the hill forts in Pomerania. He also excavated wall mounds in W ö llstein in 1875 with Robert Koch , whose paper he edited on the subject. For his contributions in German archaeology,
30020-408: The struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work... By mid-December, Darwin saw
30210-409: The systematics of the taxa. He wrote his first examination of the species in 1846, but did not formally describe it until 1854. FitzRoy's long delayed Narrative was published in May 1839. Darwin's Journal and Remarks got good reviews as the third volume, and on 15 August it was published on its own. Early in 1842, Darwin wrote about his ideas to Charles Lyell, who noted that his ally "denies seeing
30400-449: 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. 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
30590-408: The temporary Frankfurt Parliament , but failed in their aim of forming a united German homeland. The Prussians proposed an Erfurt Union of the German states, but this effort was torpedoed by the Austrians through the Punctation of Olmütz (1850), recreating the German Confederation. In response, Prussia sought to use the Zollverein customs union to increase its power among the German states. Under
30780-407: The term "Germans" is also occasionally used as a way to refer to members of the Germanic peoples during the time of the Roman Empire . The German endonym Deutsche is derived from the Old High German term diutisc , which means "ethnic" or "relating to the people". This term was used for speakers of West-Germanic languages in Central Europe since at least the 8th century, after which time
30970-398: The tissues were not cancerous, even after several biopsy tests. 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 epidermal carcinoma . Die Krankheit Kaiser Friedrich des Dritten (The Medical Report of Kaiser Frederick III)
31160-495: The very frequent process on which I have bestowed the name of Embolia." 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
31350-420: The voyage began on 27 December 1831; it lasted almost five years. As FitzRoy had intended, Darwin spent most of that time on land investigating geology and making natural history collections, while HMS Beagle surveyed and charted coasts. He kept careful notes of his observations and theoretical speculations, and at intervals during the voyage his specimens were sent to Cambridge together with letters including
31540-421: The voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and, in 1838, devised his theory of natural selection. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research, and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting the immediate joint submission of both their theories to
31730-403: The work of earthworms , inspiring "a new & important theory" on their role in soil formation , which Darwin presented at the Geological Society on 1 November 1837. His Journal was printed and ready for publication by the end of February 1838, as was the first volume of the Narrative , but FitzRoy was still working hard to finish his own volume. William Whewell pushed Darwin to take on
31920-585: Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). On 29 January, Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were married at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to suit the Unitarians, then immediately caught the train to London and their new home. Darwin now had the framework of his theory of natural selection "by which to work", as his "prime hobby". His research included extensive experimental selective breeding of plants and animals, finding evidence that species were not fixed and investigating many detailed ideas to refine and substantiate his theory. For fifteen years this work
32110-418: Was a " wren " was in the finch group . Darwin had not labelled the finches by island, but from the notes of others on the ship, including FitzRoy, he allocated species to islands. The two rheas were distinct species, and on 14 March Darwin announced how their distribution changed going southwards. By mid-March 1837, barely six months after his return to England, Darwin was speculating in his Red Notebook on
32300-404: Was a Roman and Frankish area which contained some of the oldest and most important old German cities including Aachen , Cologne and Trier , all west of the Rhine. Leaders of the stem duchies which constituted this eastern kingdom — Bavaria , Franconia , Swabia , Thuringia , and Saxony ― continued to wield considerable power independently of the king. German kings were elected by members of
32490-422: Was a great influence on Swedish pathologist Axel Key , who worked as his assistant during Key's doctoral studies in Berlin. 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
32680-400: 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
32870-420: Was actually coined by François-Vincent Raspail , but popularized by Virchow.) 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
33060-481: Was an opponent of Darwin's theory of evolution , and particularly skeptical of the emergent thesis of human evolution . 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." 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
33250-409: Was anathema to Anglicans defending social order, but reputable scientists openly discussed the subject, and there was wide interest in John Herschel's letter praising Lyell's approach as a way to find a natural cause of the origin of new species. Gould met Darwin and told him that the Galápagos mockingbirds from different islands were separate species, not just varieties, and what Darwin had thought
33440-483: 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 Times , from which further debates erupted among English scholars. Haeckel wrote his arguments in
33630-424: Was fluent in German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian and Dutch. He progressed to the gymnasium in Köslin (now Koszalin in Poland ) in 1835 with the goal of becoming a pastor. He graduated in 1839 with a thesis titled A Life Full of Work and Toil is not a Burden but a Benediction . However, he chose medicine mainly because he considered his voice too weak for preaching. In 1839, he received
33820-418: Was his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 that truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist. The observations and theories he developed during his voyage supported Charles Lyell 's concept of gradual geological change . Publication of his journal of the voyage made Darwin famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on
34010-412: 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, and militarism. In 1885, he launched a study of craniometry , which gave results contradictory to contemporary scientific racist theories on the "Aryan race", leading him to denounce the " Nordic mysticism" at
34200-425: Was in the background to his main occupation of writing on geology and publishing expert reports on the Beagle collections, in particular, the barnacles . The impetus of Darwin's barnacle research came from a collection of a barnacle colony from Chile in 1835, which he dubbed Mr. Arthrobalanus . His confusion over the relationship of this species ( Cryptophialus minutus ) to other barnacles caused him to fixate on
34390-453: Was no unbridgeable gap between humans and animals. A year on, the mission had been abandoned. The Fuegian they had named Jemmy Button lived like the other natives, had a wife, and had no wish to return to England. Darwin experienced an earthquake in Chile in 1835 and saw signs that the land had just been raised, including mussel -beds stranded above high tide. High in the Andes he saw seashells, and several fossil trees that had grown on
34580-479: Was one of the leading physicians to Kaiser Frederick III , who suffered from 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
34770-406: 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. 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
34960-457: Was rather bored by Robert Jameson 's natural-history course, which covered geology – including the debate between neptunism and plutonism . He learned the classification of plants and assisted with work on the collections of the University Museum , one of the largest museums in Europe at the time. Darwin's neglect of medical studies annoyed his father, who sent him to Christ's College, Cambridge , in January 1828, to study for
35150-401: Was significantly influenced by the Enlightenment . After centuries of political fragmentation, a sense of German unity began to emerge in the 18th century. The Holy Roman Empire continued to decline until being dissolved altogether by Napoleon in 1806. In central Europe, the Napoleonic wars ushered in great social, political and economic changes, and catalyzed a national awakening among
35340-574: Was surprised to find some benefit from hydrotherapy . Then, in 1851, his treasured daughter Annie fell ill, reawakening his fears that his illness might be hereditary. She died the same year after a long series of crises. In eight years of work on barnacles, Darwin's theory helped him to find " homologies " showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions, and in some genera he found minute males parasitic on hermaphrodites , showing an intermediate stage in evolution of distinct sexes . In 1853, it earned him
35530-482: Was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). His grandfathers Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood were both prominent abolitionists . Erasmus Darwin had praised general concepts of evolution and common descent in his Zoonomia (1794), a poetic fantasy of gradual creation including undeveloped ideas anticipating concepts his grandson expanded. Both families were largely Unitarian , though
35720-523: Was the first to describe a type of tumour called chordoma that originated from the clivus (at the base of the skull). Virchow was the first to correctly link the origin of cancers from otherwise normal cells. (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 cells ) present in mature tissue. Virchow believed that cancer
35910-408: 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. Virchow discovered the clinical syndrome which he called ochronosis ,
36100-446: Was to leave in four weeks on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America. Robert Darwin objected to his son's planned two-year voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II , to agree to (and fund) his son's participation. Darwin took care to remain in a private capacity to retain control over his collection, intending it for a major scientific institution. After delays,
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