Johann Carl Gehler

Life & Legacy

Johann Carl Gehler (17 May 1732 – 6 May 1796) was a German physician, mineralogist, and anatomist.
Born 17 May 1732 in Görlitz, Gehler studied medicine from 1751 to 1758 at the University of Leipzig, where he was a pupil of physician and botanist Christian Gottlieb Ludwig. While a student at Leipzig, he furthered his interest in natural sciences, publishing the mineralogical treatise, De characteribus fossilium externis (1757), as a result. Following graduation, he continued his education by studying mineralogy in Freiberg and obstetrics in Strasbourg as a student of Johann Jakob Fried (1689–1769).
After his return to Leipzig, he served as a lecturer in mineralogy, and in the meantime, maintained a successful medical practice, of which, he specialized in midwifery. In 1763 he was named an associate professor of botany at the university. Later on at Leipzig, he successively held professorships in physiology (1773–1781), anatomy and surgery (1781–1784), pathology (1784–1789) and therapy (1789–1796). From 1789 to 1796, he served as dean of the medical faculty. He was a member of the Ökonomischen Gesellschaft.