O. E. H. Wucherer

Otto Wucherer (1820-1873)

Otto Edward Henry Wucherer (7 July 1820 – 7 May 1873) was a Brazilian physician, born to a Dutch mother and German father.

He was born in Oporto, later moving to Hamburg, where he worked in a pharmacy. He studied medicine at the University of Tübingen. He later practiced in London at St Bartholomew's Hospital and in Lisbon. In 1843 he relocated to Brazil, eventually settling as a doctor in Salvador, Bahia, where he lived until 1871.^[1]

He discovered the filaria larvae in Bahia. His name is associated with the roundworm genus Wuchereria. He described the snake species Atractus guentheri and Xenopholis scalaris.^[2]

He was co-founder of the journal Gazeta Médica da Bahia.^[1]

Wucherer is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of reptiles, Elapomorphus wuchereri and Leposternon wuchereri.^[3]

References

1. Historical and Biographical Dictionary of the Health Sciences in Brazil (1832-1930).
2. NeglectedScience (biographical information).
3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Wucherer", p. 290).

Further reading

• Firkin BG, Whitworth JA (1987). Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Parthenon Publishing. ISBN 1-85070-333-7.