In 1855 the German physician Rudolf Virchow formulated the principle omnis cellula e cellula, that every cell arises only from a pre-existing cell, rejecting the older idea that living tissue could form spontaneously from non living matter. He developed the idea further in his 1858 book Cellular Pathology, arguing that disease itself should be understood as a disturbance at the level of the cell rather than of the whole body or its fluids, a claim that became one of the foundations of modern pathology. The core insight that cells arise only from cells is now recognized to have been proposed earlier by Robert Remak, whose contribution went largely unacknowledged in Virchow's own account.
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1. Rudolf Virchow (Wikipedia)
WikipediaBiography, 1858 Cellular Pathology
His most important work in the field was Cellular Pathology (Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begrundung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre) published in 1858, as a collection of his lectures.
entity description, Discovery of Cellular Pathology
He developed the idea further in his 1858 book Cellular Pathology, arguing that disease itself should be understood as a disturbance at the level of the cell rather than of the whole body or its fluids, a claim that became one of the foundations of modern pathology.
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