Reil the anatomist: a portrait from 1811

Reil's tomb on the Reilberg in Halle (Saale), Germany, today Bergzoo Halle

Johann Christian Reil (20 February 1759 – 22 November 1813) was a German physician, physiologist, anatomist and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry or, in German, Psychiatrie in 1808. ^[1][2]

Medical conditions and anatomical features named after him include Reil's finger, Beau-Reil cross furrows on the fingernails and the Islands of Reil in the cerebral cortex. In 1809, he was the first to describe the white fibre tract now called the arcuate fasciculus.^[3]

From 1788 to 1810 he worked in a hospital in Halle, Germany. In 1795 Reil established the very first journal of psychology in German, the Archiv für die Physiologie. In 1810 he became one of the first university teachers of psychiatry when appointed professor in Berlin.

From 1802-1805 the poet Goethe visited him to discuss scientific matters such as psychiatry, as well as to access his skills as a physician. Reil died in 1813 from typhus contracted while treating the wounded in the Battle of Leipzig, later known as the Battle of the Nations, one of the most severe confrontations of the Napoleonic Wars.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Marneros, Andreas (2005): Das Wort Psychiatrie wurde in Halle geboren. ISBN 3-7945-2413-6

[edit] External links

• Johann Christian Reil, Dictionary of Eighteenth Century German Philosophers

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