Emanuel Mendel was a German neurologist

Neurologist

A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...

 and psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 who was a university professor and director of a polyclinic in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He was born in Bunzlau, Lower Silesia

Lower Silesia

Lower Silesia ; is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to the southeast.Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526...

; (today known as Bolesławiec, Poland).

He studied medicine in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and in 1873 received his habilitation. He was founder and publisher of the neurological/psychiatric magazine Neurologisches Centralblatt. Mendel was an advocate concerning the unification of psychiatry and neurology as complementary disciplines. Among his better-known students and assistants were Max Bielschowsky

Max Bielschowsky

Max Bielschowsky was a German neuropathologist born in Breslau.After receiving his medical doctorate from the University of Munich in 1893, he worked with Ludwig Edinger at the Senckenberg Pathology Institute in Frankfurt-am-Main. At Senckenberg he learned histological staining techniques from...

 (1869-1940), Edward Flatau

Edward Flatau

Edward Flatau was a Polish neurologist. His work greatly influenced the developing field of neurology. He established neurobiologic and neuropathological sciences in Poland...

 (1869-1932), Lazar Minor

Lazar Salomowitch Minor

Lazar Salomowitch Minor was a Russian neurologist who was a native of Vilnius.Minor received his education at the University of Moscow, where he was a student of Aleksei Kozhevnikov . Afterwards he worked in Paris under Jean-Martin Charcot , and in Berlin with Carl Otto Westphal and Emanuel Mendel...

 (1855-1942) and Louis Jacobsohn-Lask

Louis Jacobsohn-Lask

Louis Jacobsohn-Lask was a German neurologist and neuroanatomist. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin under Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer, Rudolf Virchow, Emil du Bois-Reymond, Ernst Viktor von Leyden and Robert Koch...

 (1863-1940)

Mendel is remembered for the introduction of duboisine as a treatment for Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

. Duboisine is an extract from the Australian plant Dubosia myoporoides

Duboisia

Duboisia is a genus of small perennial shrubs to trees about 14 m tall, with extremely light wood and a thick corky bark. There are four species; all occur in Australia, and one also occurs in New Caledonia....

. He also conducted important studies of epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

 and progressive paralysis

Paralysis

Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...

.

Among his medical writings was a textbook on psychiatry titled Leitfaden der Psychiatrie für Studirende der Medicin (1902), which was later translated into English and published as "A Psychological Study of Insanity for Practitioners and Students". He was also interested in politics, and was a member of the Reichstag

Reichstag (German Empire)

The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....

from 1877 to 1881.