Ferdinand Hoefer

Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, also written Ferdinand Höfer in German, was a German-French medical doctor and lexicographer, born on 21 April 1811 at Döschnitz and dead on 4 May 1878. Trained as a physician, he is remembered today less for clinical work than for his many works on the history of science, which made him a notable chronicler of how medicine and the sciences developed. His career bridged two countries and two scholarly cultures, and his writings are still cited by those who study the history of the sciences. The Medicine Atlas records him as a physician whose lasting contribution was historical scholarship rather than a particular treatment or discovery.