Rudolph Virchow, 10/13/1821-9/5/1902

Virchow was one of the great minds in the history of medicine.
He was responsible for a wide range of discoveries and insights.
Among these was his understanding and description of the factors that lead to thrombosis.
The first to recognize and describe how venous thrombosis of the lower extremities could embolize and become a pulmonary embolism.
"The detachment of larger or smaller fragments from the end of the softening thrombus which are carried along by the current of blood and driven into remote vessels. This gives rise to the very frequent process on which I have bestowed the name of Embolia."