Abel, Frederick Gottfried
, a physician, assessor of the College of Physicians, and member of the Literary Society at Halberstadt, the son of the preceding Gaspar, was born July 8, 1714. In 1731, he commenced his theological studies at Halberstadt, under the celebrated Mosheim, and a year after removed to Halle, where he attended the lectures of Wolfe and Baumgarten, and often preached with much applause. In a few years, however, he gave up his theological pursuits, studied medicine, and in 1744 was admitted to the degree of doctor at Konigsberg. On his return to Halberstadt, he practised as a physician above half a century, and died Nov. 23, 1794. He is said to have been uncommonly successful in practice, yet had very little faith in medicine, and always prescribed such remedies as were cheap and common. Probity, modesty, and humanity, were the most striking features in | his character. While studying medicine at Halle, he did not neglect polite literature. He made some poetical translations, particularly one of Juvenal into German, which he published in 1738 .1
Biographie Universelle, 1811.—Dict. Hist. 1810.