Albrecht von Graefe

  Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Graefe (May 22, 1828–July 20, 1870), was a pioneering German oculist.

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  Von Graefe was born in Berlin, the son of Karl Ferdinand von Graefe. At an early age he showed a preference for mathematics, but this was gradually superseded by an interest in natural science, which led him ultimately to the study of medicine. After studying at Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Paris, London, Dublin and Edinburgh, and having devoted special attention to ophthalmology, in 1850 he began to practice as an oculist in Berlin. He founded a private institution there for the treatment of eyes, which became the model of many similar clinics in Germany and Switzerland.

In 1853 he was appointed teacher of ophthalmology at the University of Berlin; in 1858 he became an Extraordinary Professor, and in 1866 an Ordinary Professor. Graefe contributed greatly to ophthalmological science, particularly by the establishment in 1855 of his Archiv für Ophthalmologie, in which von Arlt and Franciscus Donders collaborated. Perhaps his two most important discoveries were his method of treating glaucoma and a new operation for cataract. He was also regarded as an authority in diseases of the nervous system and brain. He died at Berlin on 20 July 1870.

The eponymous "Graefe's sign" is associated with Graves-Basedow disease.

References

• See Ein Wort der Erinnerung an Albrecht von Graefe (Halle, 1870) by his cousin, Alfred Graefe (1830-1899), also a distinguished ophthalmologist, and the author of Das Sehen der Schielenden (Wiesbaden 1897); and E Michaelis, Albrecht von Graefe. Sein Leben und Wirken (Berlin,1877).
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.