From Virchow to Alternative Medicine

This blog is to describe the interesting lecture series that we have had from Dr. Wasser. He has a very special way of conveying the message about the history of medicine in Europe. Our next lecture, as in lecture 3, came after an interesting visit to the Charité Pathology Institute (Pathologisches Institut) founded by none other than Rudolph Virchow, father of modern cell pathology.

Our day began with the tour of the museum. The facility wsa divided into three floors, each one with different themes. So our first stop was the Anatomical theater and museum. These came to be in order to do dissections and expose the damaged tissues that made up the human body. Curiously, Virchow opened the museum part for the public ONLY on Sundays from 11AM to 1PM with the idea that it was to be "a temple for science", or in other words, sort of compete with regular church. Virchow was among the first people to begin collecting human skulls, including syphilitic, trepponated and normal, in order to have a means of comparison. Of his collection of almost 200 skulls only a few remain at the Institute. We observed wax models of disease, the "pictures of their time," and realized that perhaps being a patient was not fun during the early times. The second floor included the beginnnings of the laboratory. New electrophysiologic machines such as the chimograph (kymograph in German) were being used to test the electrical activity of muscles and opening the door to understanding the complexity of our own bodies. Instruments like the first ophthalmoscope, the first laryngoscope, the first otoscope found their way into the museum collection. In adition an X-ray machine, invented by Karl Röntgen, was also in the museum along with pictures of doctors taking an X-ray without protection. Our guide later explained that many were dying rapidly... Probably due to X-ray radiation. The expo not only showed the instruments, but also how they were used, which shed light into the beginnings of instrumentation and modern medical diagnosis-based practice. Then we went into the Specimen room. This room contained specimens organized by body system and further organized into normal anatomy, patho-anatomy and a specific disease, e.g.: cancer, or coronary artery disease. The specimens all come from real people and are a vast collection of the complexity and variety of issues medicine has to deal with. Nevertheless, it was super interesting and it served as a stimulus to continue learning. The last floor contained the "evolution of the hospital" from birthing chairs up to modern ICU hospital beds. It had a display of an iron lung used for Polio (Kinderlähmung).

Our lecture took place in an old classroom where Virchow himself lectured! We basically reviewed Virchow's life and his three pillars for modern medicine:
1.) Clinical observations
2.) Animal experimentation to test etiology of diease
3.) Pathoanatomy (Anatomical Pathology) for identification of disease.
He was the one that coined the term "omnis cellula e cellula," "each cell is derived from another" Later, he published a book on Cell Pathology, revised the sewage system for Berlin and was appointed by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to the head of the University of Berlin Medical School. His political activism earned him Bismark's contempt, so he left Berlin. It is surprising he had any time to sleep!!!

We had a guest lecture by Dr. Claudia Witt. This lecture focused on Alternative medicine. Components of alternative medicine include naturopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, among others. It was an interesting lecture and it expanded on each topic.
Naturopathy has several branches that use the elements of nature for healing:
- Phytomedicine uses plants as remedies e.g.: St. John's Wart for mild depression, Eccinacea for a beginning cold, etc.
- Hydrotherapy uses hot and cold water to relax the body and strengthen it
- Excercise works against depression and keeps us healthy overall
- Dietetics means watching what we eat and drink and what we should eat when we are unhealthy.
- Lifestyle advice is how to live, the so called "Mind body medicine." It involves relaxation, changing lifestyle and stress management along with sleeping style changes.
Homeopathy we have heard about, Hahnemann's idea of inducing a disease to cure it using plants and other natural extracts. The dilution principle, as Dr. Witt stated is not very accepted amongst the scientific community. That was the only real difference from our previous talks.
Acupuncture, most commonly needle accupuncture has its Chinese and Japanese branches. The former uses longer needles that penetrate deeper into the skin and the latter, the opposite. Both seem to be making a comeback in Europe and the US.
Personnel that are trained in alternative medicine have special titles in Europe and are respected. They are known as Heilpraktiker in German. Overall the lecture was interesting, I will write about subsequent lectures and visits soon!!!