Johann Carl Gehler

Johann Carl Gehler (17 May 1732 – 6 May 1796) was a German physician, mineralogist, and anatomist.

Born 17 May 1732 in Görlitz, Gehler studied medicine from 1751 to 1758 at the University of Leipzig, where he was a pupil of physician and botanist Christian Gottlieb Ludwig. While a student at Leipzig, he furthered his interest in natural sciences, publishing the mineralogical treatise, De characteribus fossilium externis (1757), as a result. Following graduation, he continued his education by studying mineralogy in Freiberg and obstetrics in Strasbourg as a student of Johann Jakob Fried (1689–1769).

After his return to Leipzig, he served as a lecturer in mineralogy, and in the meantime, maintained a successful medical practice, of which, he specialized in midwifery.

Published works De characteribus fossilium externis, Leipzig 1757; later translated into German by Abraham Gottlob Werner as Abhandlung über die äußeren Kennzeichen der Fossilien (1774) – Treatise on the external characteristic of fossils. Herrn Anton Baumé. Erläuterte Experimental-Chemie Leipzig 1775 – Antoine Baumé. Illustrated Experimental Chemistry, translated from French into German by Gehler. , Leipzig 1786. Kleine Schriften, die Entbindungskunst betreffend, Leipzig 1798 (edited after his death by Karl Gottlob Kühn) – Smaller works, on midwifery, 2 volumes.