) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

.

He studied medicine and the natural sciences first 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 later in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 under Johann Lukas Schönlein

Johann Lukas Schönlein

Johann Lukas Schönlein was a German naturalist, and professor of medicine, born in Bamberg. He studied medicine at Landshut, Jena, Göttingen, and Würzburg...

. After he received his medical doctorate (Zurich, 1834), he traveled throughout Switzerland, studying botany. For the next year and a half he studied in Paris, particularly under Baron Guillaume Dupuytren and Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis was a French physician, known for introducing the use of the "numerical method" in the field of medicine — i.e., the concept that knowledge about a disease, its history, clinical presentation and treatment, could be derived from aggregated patient data.Louis became...

. In 1838 he settled in Bex

Bex

Bex is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle. It is a few miles south of its sister town municipality of Aigle.-The Bex Salt Mine:Bex is the site of a famous salt mine....

, later changing between Bex and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. From 1842 to 1845 he worked mainly in comparative anatomy

Comparative anatomy

Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...

, which had interested him during his travels as a student on the coast of Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 and the Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

 with Charles-Philippe Robin

Charles-Philippe Robin

Charles-Philippe Robin was a French anatomist, biologist, and histologist who was born in Jasseron, département Ain....

. On a government assignment, he collected specimens for Musée Orfila. After a stay in Berlin during the winter of 1845-1846 Lebert settled in Paris, where he devoted his efforts to both his practice and scientific work. In 1853 he accepted an invitation to become professor of clinical medicine in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, and six years later he moved on to Breslau, where he held the same job. In 1874 he returned to Bex, where he spent the rest of his life.

Lebert was among the first to use the microscope in pathological anatomy, and thus contributed importantly to both pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 and clinical medicine.

Selected writings

• Physiologie pathologique. 2 volumes and atlas. Paris, Baillière, 1845. (An early work on pathological histology
  Histology
  Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues of plants and animals. It is performed by examining cells and tissues commonly by sectioning and staining; followed by examination under a light microscope or electron microscope...
  
   that was instrumental in introducing the cellular idea of pathology).
• Traité d’anatomie pathologique générale et spéciale. 2 volumes. Paris, Baillière, 1857 and 1861. (Known for its excellent hand-coloured copperplate engravings of macro- and micropathology).

Source

• Hermann Lebert @ Who Named It
  Who Named It
  Who Named It? is an English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though this is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliographies. It is hosted in Norway and maintained by medical...