Oscar Liebreich

Oscar Liebreich
Oscar Liebreich
Born	14 February 1839(1839-02-14) Königsberg, Germany
Died	2 July 1908(1908-07-02) (aged 69) Berlin, Germany
Institutions	Pharmacology Institute in Berlin, Balneologischen Gesellschaft
Alma mater	University of Wiesbaden, University of Berlin
Doctoral advisor	Carl Remigius Fresenius chemistry, Rudolf Virchow medicine
Known for	sedative chloral hydrate

Matthias Eugen Oscar Liebreich (14 February 1839 - 2 July 1908) was a German pharmacologist who was a native of Königsberg.

He studied chemistry under Carl Remigius Fresenius (1818–1897) in Wiesbaden, and studied medicine in Königsberg, Tübingen and Berlin, achieving his degree in 1865. Beginning in 1867 he worked as an assistant in the chemistry department of the pathological institute under Rudolf Virchow. Later he became professor and director of the Pharmacology Institute in Berlin. In 1889 he co-founded the Balneologischen Gesellschaft (Balneology Society) in Berlin, and was its chairman until his death in 1908. He was a younger brother of ophthalmologist Richard Liebreich (1830–1917).

Liebreich is well-known for his investigations of the sedative and hypnotic properties of chloral hydrate in 1869, and was a major figure concerning the drugs' popularity in the latter half of the 19th century. He also made important contributions in his chemical research of substances such as cantharidin, boracic acid and lanolin.

References

• This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
• A. Langgard (1908). "Oscar Liebreich". Chemische Berichte 41 (3): 4801–4804. doi:10.1002/cber.190804103192. 
• Liebreich, Oscar (1869). Das Chloralhydrat : ein neues Hypnoticum und Anaestheticum und dessen Anwendung in der Medicin ; eine Arzneimittel-Untersuchung. Berlin: Müller. 

Persondata
Name	Liebreich, Oscar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 February 1839
Place of birth	Königsberg, Germany
Date of death	2 July 1908
Place of death	Berlin, Germany