J. (Julius) Hirschberg

Born in Potsdam on September 18, 1843, Julius Hirschberg studied medicine in Berlin and trained under the celebrated ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe. He went on to build a strong reputation as an eye specialist, teacher, and writer, and he opened a private eye clinic where poor patients were treated free of charge.

Hirschberg made several lasting contributions to ophthalmology. He introduced the term campimetry for measuring the visual field on a flat surface, became an early user of an electromagnet to remove metallic foreign bodies from the eye, and developed the Hirschberg test for strabismus. He also edited the long-running Centralblatt für praktische Augenheilkunde, which helped spread new ideas in eye medicine.

Alongside his clinical work, he was deeply interested in the history of medicine. His major scholarly achievement was a sweeping history of ophthalmology that traced the subject across cultures and centuries. He died in Berlin on February 17, 1925, leaving behind a legacy as both an innovator in eye care and one of the field’s great historians.