Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick (22 February 1852 – 11 February 1937) was a German

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, 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. Followin ...

who invented the

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

. He was the nephew of the German physiologist

Adolf Eugen Fick Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901) was a German-born physician and physiologist. Early life and education Fick began his work in the formal study of mathematics and physics before realising an aptitude for medicine. He ...

, and the son of the German anatomy professor

Franz Ludwig Fick Franz Ludwick Fick (18 May 1813 – 31 December 1858) was a professor of anatomy at the University of Marburg. Education In 1835, he received his MD under Bünger from the University of Marburg. Career Fick studied the developmental mechanics o ...

. When Fick was three years old, his mother died, and when he was six, his father, anatomy professor Ludwig Fick, died. Soon afterwards, he was raised in Adolf Fick's family. Adolf Fick was his uncle, godfather, and a famous physiologist, and influenced his nephew's studies in ophthalmology. The younger Fick studied medicine in Würzburg, Zürich, Marburg, and Freiburg. In 1884, Fick traveled to Germany to marry Marie, the daughter of

Johannes Wislicenus Johannes Wislicenus (24 June 1835 – 5 December 1902) was a German chemist, most famous for his work in early stereochemistry. Biography The son of the radical Protestant theologian Gustav Wislicenus, Johannes was born on 24 June 1835 in K ...

; he later had eight children with her. In 1888, he constructed and fitted what was to be considered the first successful model of a contact lens: an afocal

sclera The sclera, also known as the white of the eye or, in older literature, as the tunica albuginea oculi, is the opaque, fibrous, protective, outer layer of the human eye containing mainly collagen and some crucial elastic fiber. In humans, and som ...

l contact shell made from heavy brown glass, which he tested first on rabbits, then on himself, and lastly on a small group of volunteers. It was considered the first successful model of a contact lens. His idea was advanced independently by several innovators in the years that followed. During World War I, Fick headed field hospitals in France, Russia and Turkey. At the same time he continued working on ophthalmologic anatomy and optics.

References

External links and sources

Fick biography
- The "Kontaktbrille" of Adolf Eugen Fick (1887)

- Contact Lens History, the overseas pioneers {{DEFAULTSORT:Fick, Adolf Gaston Eugen 1852 births 1937 deaths German ophthalmologists 19th-century German inventors