used by the universe to absorb nutrients, exchange energy, build tissue,
respond to stress, store information, serve as communication centers, and
to form gametes (ova and sperm) to create another life. Virchow’s record
is not unblemished—he denied Darwinism and the germ theory his entire
life—but his concept of the cellular basis of disease, the Archive, his two
thousand authored manuscripts, and his long list of apprentices, enshrined
him in the Pantheon of medicine, and more importantly, ushered in a
metamorphosis in medicine that cracked open the vault of the truths of the
inner workings of all cells, tissues, and organs.
In the space of a century, physicians had awakened to the notion of the
organ basis of disease, which rapidly advanced to the cellular basis of
disease. This, of course, would further evolve into the genetic basis of
disease once the understanding of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was
realized. Understanding the cell as the building block of life unfettered
physicians from millennia of superstition, and the rise of industrial
chemistry would soon result in chemotherapeutics that were efficacious.
In the late 19th century, surgeons transmuted from bleeders and abscess
drainers into diagnosticians—coconspirators with pathologists in their
quest to identify and treat disease. Surgeons had long attempted to shake
off the association with barbers, but their search for significance would be
achieved not by heroic acts and displays of dexterity, but via a scientific
reorientation. It is no accident that the greatest surgeons were cultivated in
centers where pathology was most warmly embraced; surgeons have never
been “wellness” professionals, but are instead mercenaries called upon in
the face of catastrophe and therefore, by necessity, must be nurtured in
environments where disease and traumatic injuries are investigated and
explained.
The contributions of a group of surgeons in Europe, and for the first
time, America, would finally raise the stature of surgeons from the
lowliest to the recognized. These pioneering surgeons conducted
investigations, used experimental tools (like microscopes), altered
techniques, reviewed their outcomes, and, for the first time, started to
improve the lot of their fellow man. Amazingly, in the late 19th century,
surgeons did the unthinkable. Instead of just operating on people in
extremis, at the point of death, surgeons began the practice of elective
surgery, paving the way for our modern world, where patients seek
operations for conditions that not only are non–life threatening, or even
marcin
(Marcin)
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