Carl Arnold Ruge

Carl Arnold Ruge (24 September 1846 to 15 April 1926) was a German pathologist, a native of Berlin and a nephew of the pathologist Rudolf Virchow. He directed the laboratory for microscopic and clinical research in the Frauenklinik at the Charite in Berlin and worked closely with the gynecologist Karl Ludwig Ernst Schroeder. From 1882 to 1912 he directed the pathological institute for gynecology at the university women clinic, and he was appointed professor in 1896. Ruge pioneered microscopic diagnostics in gynecology and, with his associate Johann Veit, laid the groundwork for modern gynecological pathology and histology. In the 1870s the two introduced the surgical biopsy as a necessary diagnostic tool and showed that many cervical cancer operations were unnecessary without one. He is credited with the early detection of uterine cancer and with defining varicose veins.