matter of practical politics, of
statecraft, or of science, or who, perhaps, had merely come the length
of the continent that they might grasp the hand of the "father of
pathology."

In whatever capacity one sought him out, provided the seeking were not
too presumptuous, one was sure to find the great savant approachable,
courteous, even cordial. A man of multifarious affairs, he impressed
one as having abundance of time for them all, and to spare. There is a
leisureliness about the seeming habit of existence on the Continent that
does not pertain in America, and one felt the flavor of it quite as much
in the presence of this great worker as among those people who from
our stand-point seem never really to work at all. This is to a certain
extent explained if one visited Virchow in his home, and found to his
astonishment that the world-renowned physician, statesman, pathologist,
anthropologist was domiciled in a little apartment of the most modest
equipment, up two flights, in a house of most unpretentious character.
Everything was entirely respectable, altogether comfortable, to be sure;
but it was a grade of living which a man of corresponding position in
America could not hold to without finding himself quite out of step with
his confreres and the subject of endless comment. But in this city
of universal apartment-house occupancy and relatively low average of
display in living it is quite otherwise. Virchow lived on the same
plane, generally speaking, with the other scientists of Europe; it is
only from the American standpoint that there is any seeming disparity
between his fame and his material station in life; nor do I claim this
as a merit of the American stand-point.

Be that as it may, however, our present concern lies not with these
matters, but with Virchow the pathologist and teacher. To see the
great scientist at his best in this role, it was necessary to visit the
Institute of Pathology on a Thursday morning at the hour of nine. On
the morning of our visit we found the students already assembled and
gathered in clusters all about the room, examining specimens of morbid
anatomy, under guidance of various laboratory assistants. This was
to give them a general familiarity with the appearances of the
disease-products that would be described to them in the ensuing lecture.
But what is most striking about the room was the very unique method of
arrangement of the desk or table on which the specimens rested. It
wa