Gottfried Christian Reich (19 July 1769 – 5 January 1848) was a German physician and a professor of medicine first at the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

and then at

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

. He translated several medical works in English to German. He also took an interest in natural history and edited two short-lived periodicals, one on the animal kingdom and another on plants.

Life and work

Reich was born in the Kaiserhammer hunting lodge at

Marktleuthen Marktleuthen () is a municipality in the district of Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the ...

near

Wunsiedel (; Northern Bavarian: ''Wåuṉsieḏl'' or ''Wousigl'') is the seat of the Upper Franconian district of in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town is the birthplace of poet Jean Paul. It also became known for its annual Festival and the Rudolf ...

. He studied medicine at

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and Erlangen and received a doctorate in 1793 for a thesis titled ''Brevis epidemiae variolosae Arzbergensis anni 1791 delineatio''. He then became a professor of medicine at the

. He translated several medical works from English to German and in 1796 he wrote on

rinderpest Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, African Buffalo, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wilde ...

. He also edited periodicals on plants and animals, describing two new insects and a hummingbird species. He also wrote on fevers and suggested that they were due to chemical causes, specifically an increase in nitrogen and a reduction in oxygen, suggesting the treatment using acids. He claimed that the results were infallible and news of his claim spread widely. The Prussian government requested him to conduct some experiments to demonstrate this at the Charité hospital in Berlin in 1799. The results were published in 1801 and was reviewed favourably, and he was granted a pension. He also gave lectures and moved to Berlin in 1800. He was posted as professor of medicine when Berlin University was founded and he worked there until his death.

References

External links

Magazin des Thierreichs

Magazin des Pflanzenreichs

Mantissae insectorvm iconibvs illvstratae species novas avt nondvm depictas exhibentis
(1797)
On fever and its treatment in general
(1801) (English translation by Caleb Hillier Parry
German original

Die Cholera in Berlin
(1831) {{DEFAULTSORT:Reich, Gottfried Christian 1769 births 1848 deaths 19th-century German physicians German naturalists People from Wunsiedel (district) 18th-century German physicians