ABSTRACT
George Bartisch is best known as the German ophthalmologist who wrote the mammoth textbook Ophthalmodouleia, printed in 1583. He wrote several other books, most of which were never published. One that he self-published is on Venice Theriac of Andromachus. Common theriac has a long history in medicine from just after Hippocrates. It initially was used for venomous snake bites but later was used for poisonings too. By Bartisch's time it was considered a nearly universal cure-all. In the book, a multitude of ophthalmic and general diseases are listed and then the dose of Theriac is given. Bartisch warned against the many inferior types of theriac available through unscrupulous traveling salespeople. He offered the superior Venice Theriac for sale, compounded by himself in Dresden, Germany, where he resided.
Subject(s)
Antivenins/history , Ophthalmology/history , Animals , Antidotes , Germany , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, Ancient , History, Medieval , Publishing/history , Snake Bites/history , Venoms/historySubject(s)
Blindness/history , Famous Persons , England , Germany , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , Ophthalmology/historyABSTRACT
Heinrich Vogtherr's Büchlin is the first European, ophthalmology booklet published in the vernacular. It appeared in 1538 amidst a stream of other medical booklets by the same publisher. Büchlin includes an anatomy of the eye, a description of pathophysiology, various diseases, and numerous remedies. It precedes G. Bartisch's Ophthalmodouleia but earlier texts probably influenced Bartisch more.
Subject(s)
Books , Ophthalmology/history , Publishing/history , Germany , History, 16th CenturyABSTRACT
E. Jaeger published the first illustration of the glaucomatous cup. Throughout his clinical career he published multiple observations about findings in glaucoma. In his book Ueber Glaucoma he praised and advocated A. von Graefe's iridectomy but contradicted Graefe's concept of the etiology being a localized choroiditis in favor of systemic gout.
Subject(s)
Glaucoma/history , Austria , History, 19th Century , Humans , Ophthalmology/historyABSTRACT
Caspar Stromayr, ophthalmologist and hernia surgeon, is credited with writing the first German ophthalmic work of known authorship. Written in about 1559 as an appendix to Practica Copiosa, a larger work on hernia surgery, the ophthalmic chapters describe Stromayr's thoughts on the etiology and treatment of cataract. Stromayr, a master craftsman, also expresses his hostility to the shams and ignorance of the charlatan eye surgeons of his day. This interesting historical article provides a biographical sketch of Stromayr, a description of his book, and a translation of two chapters, "On Cataract of the Eye: How They Take Their Beginning and Whence they Come" and "How You Recognize the Cataract, When It is Ripe to Recline or to be Taken Away."
