He was born in
Porto, later moving to
Hamburg, where he worked in a
pharmacy. He studied medicine at the
University of Tübingen, receiving his doctorate in 1841 as a pupil of
Ferdinand Gottlieb von Gmelin. 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. Together with
John Ligertwood Paterson and
José Francisco da Silva Lima, he co-founded the Escola Tropicalista da Bahia (Bahia School of Tropical Medicine). He discovered the
filaria larvae in
Bahia. His name is associated with the
roundworm genus
Wuchereria, and he is commemorated in the
scientific names of two species of reptiles,
Elapomorphus wuchereri and
Leposternon wuchereri. He described the snake
species Atractus guentheri and
Xenopholis scalaris. He was co-founder of the journal
Gazeta Médica da Bahia. == Taxon named in his honor ==