[The history of the prosector's department of the Charité Berlin. 3. Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow, prosector of Charité, 1846 to 1849].

Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821-1902) had been prosector at the Charité of Berlin, from 1846 to 1849. He had moved to Berlin in October 1839 for army surgeon training at the Pépinière, the Academy of Military Medicine. He had to choose that line of education, as it was free, for his parents were in no financial position to pay for ordinary university studies. On completion of theoretical classes, Easter 1843, he was delegated to Charité for an 18-months practical training programme. He worked in all compulsory clinical departments and, subsequently, took up service in the Prosector's Department then headed by Robert F. Froriep who guided and supported Virchow towards independent scientific activity. Virchow defended his doctoral thesis with good success in 1843. His application for the expected vacant office of Prosector was supported by Froriep before he left Berlin in 1846. The application was granted "ad interim", on May 11, 1846. His name became known very soon on account of his ambitious commitment. He also began to take a growing commitment to political change in Prussia in general, and change to the medical system in particular. He achieved discharge from military service in 1847, formally qualified for university lecturing, and was officially appointed as Prosector and lecturer. In the same year, 1847, he founded the "Archives" in cooperation with Benno H. E. Reinhardt. During an epidemic cholera outbreak in Berlin and an outbreak of petechial typhus in Upper Silesia, early 1848, he realised social root causes of disease and accused the Prussian government for negligence of its own citizens. He then joined the March struggles of 1848 out of his insight into the need for change of society. A weekly under the heading of "Die medicinische Reform" ("Reform in Medicine") was published under Virchow's editorship, from mid-1848 to mid-1849. Early 1849, his involvement on the premises of Charité in a leaflet campaign against planned mock elections in Prussia led to his suspension from office. Widespread protest by medical doctors and students, together with concessions made by Virchow and the Ministry in charge, resulted in his reinstallment. Having received offers for professoral chairs from the universities of Würzburg and Giessen, he was encouraged to bargain for acceptable conditions for continuation at the Berlin university. These were not granted, and he left for a lecturing post at the University of Würzburg.