VIRCHOW, Rudolf - Cellular Pathology as based upon Physiological and Pathological Histology

NY: Robert M. De Witt, 1860.8vo. 554 pp., including index. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION Translated from the 2nd edition of the German original. there was also an English edition published by Churchill in London the same year (1860). Small 4to. 554pp. With 144 text wood engravings. Full Contemporary calf, spine in compartments with black Morocco label, some light wear with a crack staring at the bottom of the top board, the text is clean with some light pencil scoring (erasable) and marginalia on a few pages. otherwise, an excellent copy now housed in a custom slipcase. Virchow founded the medical fields of cellular pathology and comparative pathology (comparison of diseases common to humans and animals). His most important work in 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." Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow 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, the "Pope of medicine." Cellular Pathology (1858), regarded as the root of modern pathology, introduced the third dictum in cell theory: Omnis cellula e cellula ("All cells come from cells"). 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). 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 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. "Virchow made cellular pathology into a system of overwhelming importance. His main statement of the theory was given in a series of 20 lectures in 1858. The lectures, published in 1858 as his book Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebenlehre (Cellular Pathology as Based upon Physiological and Pathological Histology), at once transformed scientific thought in the whole field of biology" (Britannica). Virchow's theory that the changes in cells account for diseases in organs revolutionized the field of medicine, leading to a profound growth in the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for diseases. Printing and the Mind of Man 307c. Garrison-Morton 2299; (both for the original German first edition)