Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich (4 August 1815,

Sulz am Neckar Sulz am Neckar is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar, 22 km north of Rottweil, and 19 km southeast of Freudenstadt. Sulz am Neckar came in the possession of the Hoh ...

– 25 September 1877,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

) was a German physician, pioneer

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their ...

, and medical professor. He is known for his measurement of mean

normal human body temperature Normal human body-temperature (normothermia, euthermia) is the typical temperature range found in humans. The normal human body temperature range is typically stated as . Human body temperature varies. It depends on sex, age, time of day, exert ...

of 37 °C (98.6 °F), now known more accurately to be about 36.8 °C (98.2 °F). He attended grammar school in Stuttgart and at the age of eighteen he began his medical studies at

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

, where he completed his final exams in 1837. In 1838 he worked as assistant at St Catharine's Hospital in Stuttgart, and wrote his MD thesis. Two years later he wrote his MD

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

on internal medicine at University of Tübingen. In 1846, he was appointed Professor (

ordentlicher Professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

) and head of the general hospital at Tübingen. He moved to

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

as Professor and Medical Director of the university hospital four years later. There he introduced clinical pedagogy, combined with a rigorous methodology of diagnosis, and empirical observation of patients. He introduced temperature charts into hospitals, holding that fever is not a disease, but a symptom. The thermometer he used was reportedly a foot long, and required 20 minutes to register the temperature. He was known for his lectures on psychiatry and on the "pathology and therapy of illnesses of the

nervous system In Biology, biology, the nervous system is the Complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its Behavior, actions and Sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its ...

." He described an extremely rare

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

syndrome that consists of

retroperitoneal The retroperitoneal space (retroperitoneum) is the anatomical space (sometimes a potential space) behind (''retro'') the peritoneum. It has no specific delineating anatomical structures. Organs are retroperitoneal if they have peritoneum on thei ...

bleeding from the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; bloo ...

, which tracks into the surrounding tissues. This may be due to benign or malignant disease. In 1871, he was appointed to the Department of Medicine's organisational commission for the construction and design of psychiatric hospitals.

Publications

* * ; its 2nd edition translated into English and published with the titl
''On the temperature in diseases: a manual of medical thermometry''
(1871).

References

External links

from the History of the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wunderlich 1815 births 1877 deaths People from Sulz am Neckar People from the Kingdom of Württemberg German psychiatrists