Adolf Lesser was a German physician who specialized in forensic medicine. He was born in the city of Stargard

Starogard Gdanski

Starogard Gdański is a town in Eastern Pomerania in northwestern Poland with 48,328 inhabitants...

, West Prussia

West Prussia

West Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...

.

Lesser studied medicine at the University of Berlin, and from 1877 to 1884 was an assistant at the institute of pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. In 1886 he was appointed Stadtphysikus in Breslau, and during the following year became an associate professor at the University of Breslau. He remained at Breslau until his retirement in 1921.

He was the author of numerous articles in medical journals, his best known written work being the 1892 Atlas der Gerichtlichen Medizin (Atlas of Forensic Medicine).