HIRSCHBERG, JULIUS

HIRSCHBERG, JULIUS (1843–1925), German ophthalmologist. Hirschberg, the son of a small merchant in Potsdam, studied medicine in Berlin and served as assistant to the famous Albrecht von Graefe, under whose influence he specialized in ophthalmology. He soon became a renowned teacher and in 1869 opened a private eye clinic where poor patients were treated free of charge. A year later he became lecturer in ophthalmology at Berlin University. In 1877 Hirschberg founded a specialist monthly, Centralblatt fuer praktische Augenheilkunde, which he edited for over 40 years. He was a most prolific writer, covering the whole field of ophthalmology, and a very successful ophthalmic surgeon of international repute. Correlating clinical ocular findings with those of the pathological laboratory, he was one of the first to define the specific ocular complications of a number of general diseases, including diabetes and syphilis. His most important contribution to clinical practice was the use of a hand magnet for extracting foreign bodies from the eye. His greatest work, however, was an encyclopedic study of the history of ophthalmology entitled Geschichte der Augenheilkunde (9 vols., 1899–1918). This work, together with a series of special historical monographs and translations – with the help of two Arabists – of the manuscripts of eminent Arabian medieval writers, placed him in the ranks of medical historians. Though an ardent champion of German national culture, Hirschberg never denied his Jewishness and was therefore refused the post of a professor ordinarius, for which he had the highest qualifications.

bibliography:

H. Friedenwald, Jews and Medicine, 2 vols. (1967²), index; Wininger, Biog, 3 (1928), 125–6; S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 517.

[Aryeh Feigenbaum]