Professor Virchow, the most distinguished of German men of science,
and one of her most distinguished politicians, passed away on September 5th in the eighty-first year of his age. His theory of cellular pathology gave a new and solid foundation to medical science, and has been accepted with admiration throughout Europe, men like Sir James Paget calling themselves his pupils ; and his papers on pathology generally, published steadily for more than forty years, added greatly to the mass of accurate knowledge. He was, more. over, strong in other departments than investigation. He was a great authority on hygiene, an efficient administrator in the Berlin Municipality, and the leader of the saner Radicals in the Prussian and German Parliaments. Prince Bismarck found in him one of the doughtiest of his opponents, and was once so irritated by his eloquence that he sent him a challenge. His views became more moderate as he grew older, and as he was a born administrator, he might, had a Liberal Government been possible in Germany, have become a successful Minister. Though his tongue made him bitter enemies, he was heartily honoured by his countrymen, and in 1893 he was received by the Royal Society in London as a most illustrious guest. We have no one in England who occupies quite his position, our great men of science retreat- ing, perhaps too carefully, from ordinary politics. They might give to Liberalism especially a tone of thoughtfulness and mathematical accuracy as to cause and effect which the party is occasionally apt to lack.
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