Friedrich von Herrenschwand

Friedrich von Herrenschwand

Friedrich von Herrenschwand (born January 23, 1881 in Theresienstadt in Bohemia , † December 9, 1959 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian ophthalmologist and medical historian in Innsbruck .

Life

Friedrich von Herrenschwand comes from a well-known Swiss family. His grandfather Johann Anton von Herrenschwand (1764-1835) was an officer in the general staff of the federal troops. The father Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Herrenschwand (1833–1907) was an officer in the Austrian service. One of the ancestors was Johann Friedrich von Herrenschwand (1715–1798). Among other things, he was the personal physician of King Stanislaus II August Poniatowski of Poland.

Friedrich von Herrenschwand attended grammar schools in Trient and Klagenfurt, where he passed the matriculation examination, studied at the University of Innsbruck from 1900 and received his doctorate in medicine in 1907. In the same year he became an assistant at the University Eye Clinic in Innsbruck and held this position until 1932. In 1913 he was granted the license to teach ophthalmology by the Federal Ministry for Education. Until he fell ill with cholera, he took part in the First World War with the 2nd Kaiserschützen Regiment on the Russian front and received the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order . In 1924 he received the Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria . From August 1, 1918 to October 1, 1919, he was deputy head of the eye clinic until Richard Seefelder was appointed to the board. In 1919 Herrenschwand received the title of associate university professor. Herrenschwand had been an assistant to Professors Stefan Bernheimer , Josef Meller and Richard Seefelder for 25 years. In 1925 he was in the casting proposal for the clinic in Basel, and in 1935 for those in Graz.

In 1939 he was appointed an extraordinary professor by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and National Education and made a civil servant status, albeit without the approval of diets or appointment to a scheduled chair. He was obliged to represent the subject ophthalmology in lectures and exercises. From the second trimester of 1940, this teaching obligation was extended by the issuing of a teaching position on the history of medicine. At that time, the subject was newly included in the curriculum. Herrenschwand expanded it with great effort and great success. After leaving the clinic, he devoted himself to his private practice, which was very popular. Friedrich von Herrenschwand died on December 9, 1959 and was buried in Innsbruck.

Act

Friedrich von Herrenschwand wrote numerous scientific papers, including two monographs: "The pathogenic microorganisms of the eye" (1927), in which he summarized the biological properties of eye pathogenic germs, their occurrence in nature and especially in eye diseases. He also described the most important technical questions for obtaining the test material on the eye and the bacteriological examination.

In the second monograph, "Parinaud's Conjunctivitis - Tularaemia oculoglandularis" (1935), he provided evidence that tularemia was not to be regarded as a newly discovered disease, but had been observed by Parinaud in Paris in 1885 . Through a detailed bacteriological and clinical examination of his own cases, he was able to prove the identity of the two clinical pictures. He dealt with the clinic and the treatment of ocular tuberculosis , with bacteriological experimental work, with eye injuries from wasp stings, with inflammation of the optic nerve , with "typical injuries" of the eye when skiing and with spirochetes in the eye. Herrenschwand wrote about x-ray examinations of the eye, changes in the fundus of the eye in diseases of the brain, inflammation of the tear duct , the influence of metabolic disorders in the eye, fungal infections, wound blasts after cataract surgery , and the use of pantocaine (local anesthetic) in ophthalmology.

Heterochromia of the eye

A different color of the iris of both eyes is easily recognizable and was already described by Aristotle : "Of the people, some are blue in only one eye". This anomaly is called heterochromia (different colors).

The Viennese ophthalmologist Ernst Fuchs described that the lighter color of the eye can cause the lens to become cloudy or the ciliary body , which adjusts the eye to be closer , to inflammation . The course is chronic, the eyes tend to increase intraocular pressure . Friedrich von Herrenschwand first described 13 cases of heterochromia, which also had paralysis of the sympathetic nerve. In these cases he found that the eyelid and pupil were narrower in the affected eye . He also observed unilateral reddening, sweating on one side and an asymmetry of the face. The clinical picture - a syndrome - is called Herrenschwand heterochromia, iridocyclitis heterochromica Herrenschwand, cyclitis simplex, Fuchs heterochromia, heterochromatosis. The term "heterochrome Fuchs cyclitis III" or Fuchs heterochrome iridocyclitis is currently more common . Discoloration of the iris also occurs with other diseases, for example with inflammation of the iris , with bleeding, after injuries.

Awards

• Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order
• 1924 Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria .

Publications

• Rarer war eye injuries , Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 1916. 115, 1916.
• Congenital bilateral rectified optico-ciliary veins , Clinical monthly sheets for ophthalmology. 56, 1916.
• On Entropioum congenitum and Epiblepharon , Klin Mbl Augenheilk 58: 385 (1917)
• About different types of Heterochromia iridis , Klin Mbl Augenheilk 60: 467-494 (1918)
• On the sympathetic heterochromia (Heterochromia) , Klin Mbl Augenheilk 2 (1): 1059-1065 (1923)
• The pathogenic microorganisms of the eye , Berlin 1927.
• Parinaud's conjunctivitis - Tularaemia oculoglandularis , Berlin 1935.
• Involment of the Optic Nerve in Encephalomyelitis after Vaccination. Report of Cases , Klin Mbl Augenheilk 102: 815 (1939)

literature

• Franz Huter: 100 Years of Innsbruck Medical Faculty 1869-1969, Part 2, history of the chairs, institutes and clinics , edited by publications of the University of Innsbruck 17, research on the history of Innsbruck University VII / 2, p. 391.
• Franz Daxecker : 125 years of the Innsbruck University Eye Clinic 1869-1994. Their board members , publications of the University of Innsbruck 201, Innsbruck 1994, p. 36.
• Franz Daxecker: Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Herrenschwand and heterochromia , Klin Mbl Augenheilk 224, pp. 217–218 (2007)
• Julius Hirschberg : History of Ophthalmology , 14th volume, 2nd department, §517, p. 282, In: Graefe-Saemisch: Handbook of the entire eye medicine , Leipzig 1911, reprint Hildesheim-New York 1977.
• In memoriam Prof. v. Herrenschwand , Tiroler Tageszeitung , January 21, 1960, No. 18, p. 3.

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich von Herrenschwand in the catalog of the German National Library