Catalogue Number: 1065
Lehrbuch der augenheilkunde (Textbook of ophthalmology)
Sub-Category: Significant book (Aitken collection)
Author: FUCHS Ernst
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1900
Time Period: 1900 to 1939
Place Of Publication/Manufacture: Vienna
Publisher/Manufacturer: Franz Deuticke
Description Of Item: Old half leather papered boards, 888 pages, 289 illustrations. The title page carries the words "achte vermehrte auflage", meaning "Note increased edition". First edition was 1889. It had successive re-printings or new editions almost annually. This is probably the 8th German edition. The 9th was published in 1903. The last was the 18th in 1945. It was first translated into English in 1899.
Historical Significance: Dr Ernst Fuchs (1851-1930) was Professor of Ophthalmology in the University of Vienna. He was the son of an ophthalmologist and headed the Second Clinic of Ophthalmology at the University of Vienna from 1885-1915. During those years, ophthalmologists from around the world travelled to Vienna to learn from the man considered the master of their profession. Fuchs' extensive clinical studies and histopathologic observations provided the first descriptions and definitions of many conditions and diseases of the eye, including Fuchs dystrophy and more than a dozen others that still bear his name. His Textbook of Ophthalmology, first published in 1889, was regarded as the 'bible of ophthalmology' for more than 50 years. Decades after Fuchs' death, ophthalmologists around the world still relied on this definitive text. Ernst Fuchs was famed for his teaching abilities throughout his career but especially during the last 15 years of his life, which he spent travelling to teach and visit his pupils around the world. See cat Nos 67 (4th English Edition 1911), 190, 191 (3rd English edition 1908) and 192 (7th English edition 1923).
Location: Nathan Library. Aitken collection