Friedrich Christian Rosenthal

Who was Friedrich Christian Rosenthal?

Friedrich Christian Rosenthal was a German anatomist who was a native of Greifswald.

He earned his doctorate from the University of Jena, and later opened a medical practice in Greifswald. In Greifswald he worked closely with naturalist Karl Asmund Rudolphi, earning his habilitation in 1807 from the local university with a treatise on olfaction. In 1810 he accepted an appointment to the University of Berlin, and in 1820 returned to Greifswald as a professor of physiology and anatomy. He died in 1829 at the age of 49 due to consequences from tuberculosis.

Rosenthal is remembered today for two anatomical terms that contain his name:

Rosenthal's canal, or the spiral canal of the cochlea: A section of the bony labyrinth of the inner ear that is approximately 30 mm long, making 2¾ turns about the modiolus.

Rosenthal's vein, or the cerebral basal vein: a vein that arises at the anterior perforated substance, passes backward and around the cerebral peduncle, and empties into the vein of Galen.