The German medical scientist, anthropologist, and politician Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821-1902) was the founder of the school of "cellular pathology," which forms the basis of modern pathology.

Rudolf Virchow was born on Oct. 13, 1821, in Schivelbein, the only child of a farmer and city treasurer. In 1839 Virchow entered the Friedrich Wilhelms Institute in Berlin to undertake medical studies in preparation for a career as an army doctor. He came under the strong influence of Johannes Müller, who encouraged many German doctors to use experimental laboratory methods in their medical studies. Virchow received his medical degree in 1843, having already shown a keen interest in pathology.

In 1845, while still working as an intern, Virchow published his first scientific paper. By this year he had committed himself to a research methodology based on a mechanistic understanding of vital phenomena. Medical research, according to Virchow, needed to use clinical observation...