Cellularpathologie.... Berlin: August Hirschwald, 1858.
8vo. xvi, 440 pp. Half-title and 144 text woodcuts. Contemporary half-cloth and marbled boards, minor wear on edges and corners; an excellent copy. PMM 307c. $3,000.00
First edition of Virchow's acclaimed treatise on cellular pathology. His discovery that every morbid structure consisted of cells derived from pre-existing cells revolutionized the concept that any developed tissue can be traced back only to a cell. Using improved microscopic and biochemical techniques, Virchow succeeded in reducing pathological processes to alterations and disturbances occurring at the cellular level. "He advanced the notion that the body is a co-operative state in which every cell is a citizen and in which disease is a civil war brought on by action of external forces" (Dibner).
