Rudolf Carl Virchow was born in 1821 in Schivelbein, Prussia. He was a German pathologist, physician, writer and statesman and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Pope of medicine’.
He proposed that diseases arose in individual cells and not in organs and tissues. He further stated that disease came from abnormal activities inside the cells and not from outside pathogens.
Virchow also said that diseases do not affect an entire organism but are localized to certain groups of cells. This made it easier to diagnose and treat diseases.
Virchow was the first to give a complete description of leukemia – a type of blood cancer that is characterized by an abnormal number of white blood cells. He called it ‘leukamie’, which means ‘white blood’.
He also coined the terms ‘thrombosis’ and ‘embolism’.
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