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Wilhelm Uhthoff

Wilhelm Uhthoff (July 31, 1853 - March 21, 1927) was a German ophthalmologist who was born in Klein-Warin. In 1877 earned his doctorate at the University of Berlin, and later became a professor of ophthalmology at the Universities of Marburg (1890) and Breslau (1896), where he succeeded Carl Friedrich Richard Förster (1825-1902).

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Uhthoff specialized in the study of ophthalmological disorders that were related to the central nervous system. In 1890 he described a condition of temporary vision loss linked to physical exercise, and associated with optic neuritis. This condition was to become known as Uhthoff's phenomenon, and was later found to be caused by a rise in body temperature.

In 1915 he published a treatise titled Augensymptome bei Grosshirntumoren in which gave an early description of a neuro-ophthalmic disorder that was to become known as Kennedy's syndrome [1]. However, the disease was to be named after Robert Foster Kennedy (1884-1952), who provided a more comprehensive account of the disorder.

Written works

Untersuchungen über die bei der multiplen Herdsklerose vorkommenden Augenstörungen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1890, 21: 55-116 and 303-410. W. Uhthoff
Die Augenstörungen bei Vergiftungen Handbuch der Augenheilkunde, 2nd edition, volume 11, 2 A. Leipzig, 1911.
Über die bei der Syphilis des Centralnervensystems vorkommenden Augenstörungen. Leipzig, 1894.
Über die Augensymptome bei den Erkrankungen des Nervensystems. Handbuch der Augenheilkunde, 2nd edition, volume 11, 2 B. Leipzig, 1915.
Stereoscopischer ophthalmolog. Atlas. 2. Folge, Leipzig.
Augensymptome bei Grosshirntumoren. Gräfe-Sämisch: Handbuch der Augenheilkunde, 1915. Volume I: 1143. (Foster Kennedy's syndrome).