Friedrich August von Ammon

Friedrich August von Ammon (September 10, 1799 - May 18, 1861) was a German ophthalmologist who was a native of Göttingen. He studied medicine at the Universities of Göttingen and Leipzig, and in 1829 became a professor of clinical medicine and surgery in Dresden. He was the son of theologian Christoph Friedrich von Ammon (1766-1850).

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Friedrich von Ammon is remembered for establishing Dresden as a major center of ophthalmology in the 19th century. His creation of a learning institute, his influentual writings and his research of eye disorders were all important factors in this endeavor. He made contributions in the study of iritis, sympathetic ophthalmia and ontogeny of the eye. In 1830, he founded Zeitschrift für die Ophthalmologie, an early journal devoted to ophthalmology. His best known monograph is Klinische Darstellung der Krankheiten und Bildungsfehler des menschlichen Auges, which was known for its superb hand-colored illustrations and its detailed descriptions of congenital eye disorders. This atlas was considered the most comprehensive work regarding eye disease prior to the introduction of the ophthalmoscope by Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) in 1851.

In 1842 he published an important work on plastic surgery titled Die plastische Chirurgie.

Selected writings

De genesi et usu maculae luteae in retina oculi humani obviae (Weimar 1830)
De physiologia tenotomiae (The Physiology of Tenotomy) (Dresden. 1837)
Klinische Darstellung der Krankheiten und Bildungsfehler des menschlichen Auges etc. (Berlin 1838-47, 4 Bde.)
Die Behandlung des Schielens durch den Muskelschnitt (Treatment of Squinting) (Berlin 1840)
''Klinische Darstellungen der Krankheiten und Bildungsfehler des menschlichen Auges (1838-1841)
De Iritide (About Iritis) (deutsch, Berlin. 1843)
Illustrierte pathologische Anatomie der menschlichen Kornea, Sklera, Choroidea und des optischen Nerom (Illustrated Pathological Anatomy of the Cornea, Sclera, Choroid and the Optic Nerve) (hrsg. von Warnatz, Leipzig 1862)
Die angebornen chirurgischen Krankheiten des Menschen (Berlin. 1839-1842)
Die plastische Chirurgie {Concerning Plastic Surgery) (with Moritz Baumgarten, Berlin. 1842)