Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus (11 November 1729 – 6 June 1814) was a German physician, natural historian and economist. He was the son of
Hermann Samuel Reimarus
Hermann Samuel Reimarus (22 December 1694, Hamburg – 1 March 1768, Hamburg), was a German philosopher and writer of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a existenc ...
, the brother of the writer
Elise Reimarus
Elise Reimarus (22 January 1735, Hamburg, as ''Margaretha Elisabeth Reimarus'' – 2 September 1805, Hamburg) was a German writer, educator, translator and salon-holder. She was the sister of Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and the daughter of He ...
and the father (by his first marriage) of Johanna Reimarius, who married
Georg Heinrich Sieveking
Georg Heinrich Sieveking (1 January 1751 in Hamburg, Germany – 25 January 1799 in Hamburg, Germany) was a German merchant and follower of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment. Together with his friend and business partner, Caspar Voght, he l ...
. He married twice, the second time to Sophia, sister of
August Adolph von Hennings.
In 1755 he visited London and studied under the anatomists
William Hunter and
James Douglas. His achievements include introducing
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
to Hamburg and introducing continental Europe to the idea of the
lightning rod.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimarus, Johann Albert Heinrich
1729 births
1814 deaths
German anatomists
18th-century German physicians
German economists
German naturalists
Physicians from Hamburg