Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 61 No. 2, 2025.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.21860/medflum2025_330049
Tuberculosis in the Family of Albrecht von Graefe, the Founder of Modern Ophthalmology
Milan Ivanišević
; Sveučilište u Splitu, Medicinski fakultet, Split, Hrvatska
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Tuberculosis, as a contagious disease with frequent fatal outcome, reached its peak in Europe by the number of patients in the 19th century. Many famous people suffered and died of tuberculosis. One of them is the famous German ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe (1828 ‒ 1870). He developed acute tuberculous pleuropneumonia at the age of 33, and died at the age of 42. Although he worked as an ophthalmologist for only 20 years in his short life, he is regarded as the founder of modern and scientific ophthalmology and the one who separated ophthalmology from surgery as an independent medical branch. Several members of his immediate family also contracted tuberculosis. In addition to a brief account of tuberculosis, the paper provides a description of his disease and his close family members, which has not been described or systematized in one place.
Keywords
famous persons; history; history, 19th century; ophthalmology; tuberculosis
Hrčak ID:
330049
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2025.
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