l known how prominent
a part he plays there in the Prussian Chamber of Representatives, how
he raised himself to be the leader of the party of progress, and, to
give this political position a broader basis, took part in the
representation of the citizens of the capital; how he has taken a most
active interest, as city commissioner, in all the petty anxieties and
concerns which the charge of such a city as Berlin entails. I am far
from blaming, as many have blamed, the political and civic activity to
which Virchow has indefatigably devoted his best powers. If a man
feels in himself the inclination and vocation with strength and talent
enough, to play a conspicuous political part, by all means let him do
so; but verily I do not envy him; for the satisfaction which is
derived from the most successful and fruitful political activity is
not, to my taste, to be compared with that pure and disinterested
satisfaction of the mind which results from absorption in serious and
difficult scientific labours. In the turmoil of the political and
social struggle, even the most splendid civic crown will be dulled by
the stifling dust of practical life, which never reaches the ethereal
heights of pure science and never rests on the laurels of the
thoughtful investigator. However, as I have said, that is a matter of
taste. If Virchow really believes that he is doing a greater service
to humanity by his practical political life in Berlin than he
formerly did by his theoretical scientific work in Wuerzburg, that is
his affair; but for all that, in his former sphere he was
incomparable, and cannot be replaced; in the latter this is not the
case.

If a distinguished man, be he never so remarkable for uncommon power
of work and universal gifts, passes the whole day in the friction of
political party-struggles, and throws himself as well into all the
petty and wearisome details of daily civic life, it is impossible for
him to maintain the requisite feeling for the progress of
science--particularly when it advances so rapidly and incessantly as
is the case in our day. It is therefore quite intelligible that
Virchow should soon have lost this feeling, and in the course of the
last two decades have become more and more estranged from science. And
this estrangement has at last led to so complete a change in his
fundamental views, to such a metapsychosis, that the present Virchow
of 1878 is hardly in a position to understand the youthful Virchow of