Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1931

ALBRECHT VON GRAEFE (1828-1870) Symptomenlehre der Augenmuskellähmungen. Hermann Peters 1867 [8] 175 pp., 1 illus. 21.4 cm.

Considered by many authorities to be the world's greatest ophthalmic surgeon and, without question the leading ophthalmologist of the nineteenth century, Gräfe's many contributions gave his field a firm scientific basis and prepared it for the modern era. He early elected to follow his father in a medical career and, in 1843, was the youngest student on record to enter the University of Berlin. Following his graduation in 1847, he studied at Prague, Paris, Vienna, London, Glasgow, and Dublin before entering private practice at Berlin in 1850. His practice began slowly but soon grew so large that he established a clinic in order to accommodate the large number of patients who requested his services. Gräfe's clinic became famous throughout the world and attracted many students as well as physicians who came to learn his methods. Gräfe greeted the announcement of Helmholtz's ophthalmoscope with enthusiasm in 1852 and was one of the first to utilize it in clinical practice. He founded the Archiv für Ophthalmologie in 1854 and published his classic paper on the action of the oblique muscles along with other important contributions in the first volume. He introduced the operation of iridectomy in the treatment of iritis and devised a knife to improve cataract extraction which is still in use today. Gräfe was the first to describe the cupping of the optic papilla in glaucoma and to attribute this as well as other changes in glaucoma to the increase in intraocular pressure. He also described embolism of the retinal artery as the cause of sudden blindness and realized that most cases of impaired vision or blindness resulting from cerebral diseases were due to optic neuritis rather than to optic paralysis, a widely held view during his time. The present work is one of the greatest classics of ophthalmology. In it the normal functions of the ocular muscles and the effects of injury or disease to the muscles is accurately explained for the first time. Gräfe fully describes the diagnostic methods to be used and how the nature and extent of the injury can be determined. He also discusses the physiology of eye movement as well as how each of the ocular muscles react when their function has been impaired.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 5899; Waller 3686

Gift of John Martin, M.D.