Emanuel Mendel

Who was Emanuel Mendel?

Emanuel Mendel was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who was a university professor and director of a polyclinic in Berlin. He was born in Bunzlau, Lower Silesia;.

He studied medicine in Berlin and in 1873 received his habilitation. Mendel was an advocate in regards to the unification of psychiatry and neurology as complementary disciplines. Among his better-known students and assistants were Max Bielschowsky, Edward Flatau, Lazar Minor and Louis Jacobsohn-Lask

Mendel is remembered for the introduction of duboisine, an extract from the Australian plant Dubosia myoporoides, as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. Also, he conducted important studies of epilepsy and progressive paralysis.

Among his medical writings was a textbook on psychiatry titled Leitfaden der Psychiatrie für Studirende der Medizin, later translated into English and published as "Text-book of psychiatry : A psychological study of insanity for practitioners and students". Also, he was founder and publisher of the neurological/psychiatric magazine Neurologisches Centralblatt.

Mendel was interested in politics, and was a member of the Reichstag from 1877 to 1881.