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Liebreich, Oskar Matthias Eugen

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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German physician and pharmacologist; born at Königsberg, East Prussia, Feb. 14, 1839;younger brother of Richard Liebreich. He studied first chemistry in Wiesbaden and Berlin and then, after nearly two years in Africa, medicine at the universities of Tübingen, Königsberg, and Berlin, graduating as doctor of medicine in 1865. In 1867 he became assistant at the pathological institute of Berlin University, and in 1868 joined the medical faculty of the same university as privat-docent in pharmacology. He was elected assistant professor in 1868 and appointed professor and chief of the pharmacological institute in 1872. In 1891 he received the title of "Geheime Medicinalrath."

Liebreich has added many new remedies to the pharmacopœia. In 1869 he discovered the narcotic effect of chloral hydrate; in 1873 he introduced platin-iridium cannulas for the hypodermic syringe; he showed the anesthetic effect of ethylene chlorid and butyl chlorid, the use of hydrargyrum formamidatum in the treatment of syphilis, the healing properties of lanolin (1885), of erythrophlein (1888), of cantharidin (1891), of creosol, tolipyrin, formalin, methylene blue, and many other drugs. He is a prolific writer, and has written many essays and monographs on his discoveries; especially noteworthy are those on: the presence of protogon in the brain as the chief chemical compound of phosphorus, the examination of lupus through phaneroscopic illumination, the use of strychnin as an antidote for chloral hydrate, the oxidation of neurin and the synthesis of oxyneurin (both discovered by him). His writings are very diverse; they deal not only with chemistry and pharmacology, but also with syphilology, dermatology, hygiene, and balneology. Since 1887 he has edited the "Therapeutische Monatshefte."

Liebreich is the author also of: "Das Chloralhydrat, ein Neues Hypnotikum," Berlin, 1869 (3d ed. 1871); "Encyclopädie der Therapie," ib. 1895; with Langgaard, "Kompendium der Arzneiverordnung," 5th ed. ib. 1900.