Richard Liebreich

Richard Liebreich (June 30, 1830 - January 19, 1914) was a German ophthalmologist and physiologist who was a native of Königsberg. In 1853 he earned his doctorate at Halle, and from 1854 until 1862 was an assistant to Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin. He subsequently practiced medicine in Paris (1862) and London (1870), where he was head of ophthalmology at St. Thomas Hospital. He later retired from medicine and moved back to Paris, where he worked as a sculptor and painter. His brother, Oskar Liebreich (1839-1908) was a noted pharmacologist.

Liebreich is remembered for his highly acclaimed 1863 publication of the Atlas des Ophthalmoscopie, which is the earliest atlas dedicated to the subject of ophthalmoscopy. He also designed a popular model of ophthalmoscope called the Liebreich ophthalmoscope.

As an assistant to von Graefe, Liebreich performed important research involving Usher syndrome, and demonstrated the combined heritability of blindness and deafness concerning the disease. During his first tenure in Paris he performed a successful operation on the mother-in-law of emperor Napoléon III.