Georg Joseph Beer (23 December 1763 – 11 April 1821) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n ophthalmologist. He is credited with introducing a flap operation for treatment of

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...

s (Beer's operation), as well as popularizing the instrument used to perform the surgery (Beer's knife).Fuchs, Ernst, and Alexander Duane.Text-book of Ophthalmology. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1908.
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Career

Initially a theology student, in 1786 he earned his

medical doctorate Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

. Under the guidance of

Joseph Barth Joseph Barth (28 October 1746 – 7 April 1818) was a Maltese-born Austrian ophthalmologist. He is believed to have been the first professor of ophthalmology. Education He studied at the Anatomical and Surgical School at Mediterranean Conferen ...

(1745–1818), his primary focus turned to the field of

ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

. However, his professional relationship with Barth was never close, and he later referred to his years with Barth as his "years of torture" (Barth – mentor and tormentor). The final break in their relationship was caused by Barth's favour of

Johann Adam Schmidt Johann Adam Schmidt (12 October 1759 – 19 February 1809) was a German-Austrian surgeon and ophthalmologist who was a native of Aub, a town near Würzburg. He began his medical career as an army ''Unterchirurg'' (under surgeon), and later stu ...

(1759–1809), who later became a renowned ophthalmologist. Eventually he built a successful practice despite the obstacles created by Barth, who publicly expressed doubts in regard to Beer's qualifications. Beer became a popular teacher, and attracted a number of students who later excelled in the field of ophthalmology. Among his better known pupils were William Mackenzie, Philipp Franz von Walther, Carl Ferdinand von Graefe (1787–1840), Johann Nepomuk Fischer (1777–1847), Konrad Johann Martin Langenbeck (1776–1851), Anton von Rosas (1791–1855),

Maximilian Joseph von Chelius Maximilian Joseph von Chelius (16 January 1794 – 17 August 1876) was a German surgeon and ophthalmologist born in Mannheim. Chelius received his medical doctorate in 1812 at the University of Heidelberg, and afterwards worked as both a civilia ...

(1794–1876),

Francesco Flarer Francesco Flarer (27 November 1791 – 22 December 1859) was an Italian ophthalmologist born near Merano, South Tyrol. He initially planned to study theology at Innsbruck, but instead enrolled to take classes in medicine, later relocating to the U ...

(1791–1859) and Christoph Friedrich Jaeger Ritter von Jaxtthal (1784–1871), his future son-in-law. In 1812, Beer was appointed to the chair of ophthalmology at the University of Vienna. In 1818, he suffered a stroke which left him incapacitated and eventually led to his death three years later. During his career, he sought to liberate ophthalmology from dogmatic beliefs held at the time, and to establish ophthalmology on a foundation of careful observation. His best written work was the celebrated ''Lehre von den Augenkrankheiten, als Leitfaden zu seinen öffentlichen Vorlesungen entworfen'', which was used as an important reference in ophthalmic medicine for many years afterward.

References

"Georg Joseph Beer"
at

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

External links

Beer's neurotree profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Georg Joseph 1763 births 1821 deaths Austrian inventors Austrian ophthalmologists Physicians from Vienna Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities