Hermann Lebert

Hermann Lebert (1813 to 1878), born Hermann Lewy, was a German-born physician and pathological anatomist who worked in Switzerland, France and Germany. Born in Breslau to parents living in Berlin, he studied medicine and natural science at Berlin and Zurich, took his doctorate in 1834 with a thesis on the gentians of Switzerland, and then trained in Paris under the clinician Louis. From 1836 he practised at Bex in canton Vaud, where from 1838 he was physician to the baths and hospital of Lavey and improved the sulphur and brine bath installations. After years in Paris he became professor of medical clinic and hospital director at Zurich in 1853, and in 1859 professor of medical clinic at Breslau until 1874. He was among the first to use the microscope in pathological anatomy and to test disease processes by experiment. His Anatomie pathologique generale et speciale (1854 to 1862) was crowned by the Paris Academy in 1863, and his handbook of practical medicine of 1859 went through four editions. He died at Bex in 1878.