Contributions to Progress in Ophthalmology from Switzerland: From the 16th to the 21st Century

Abstract

There are numerous contributions to the development of ophthalmology from Switzerland, a country that holds a very special place in the history of medicine from the age of Paracelsus and Vesal to the current time. This review gives an overview over these contributions and the pioneers, among them Johann Friedrich Horner, Hans Goldmann, Jules Gonin, and Walter Rudolf Hess, one of only two ophthalmologists ever awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine. A leading role in this evolution of modern ophthalmology has been played by physicians from Basel, home of Switzerland's oldest university.

Keywords: Cataract; Flammer syndrome; Glaucoma; History of ophthalmology; Laser; Minimally invasive strabismus surgery; Perimetry; Retinal detachment; Retinoblastoma; Slit lamp; Swiss medicine.

Fig. 1

The Basel skeleton, prepared by Vesal.

Fig. 2

Frontispiece of Andreas Vesalius' “De Humani Corporis Fabrica.”

Fig. 3

Johann Friedrich Horner (1831–1886).

Fig. 4

Heinrich Schiess (1833–1914).

Fig. 5

The first Basel Eye Clinic, around 1865.

Fig. 6

Otto Haab (1850–1931) with his giant magnet.

Fig. 7

The Zurich University Eye Clinic in the late 19th century.

Fig. 8

Alfred Vogt (1879–1943).

Fig. 9

The “new” Basel Eye Clinic, around 1953.

Fig. 10

Josef Flammer (*1948).