Jakob Stilling (22 September 1842 – 30 April 1915) was a German ophthalmologist from Kassel. He studied medicine at several locations including

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

, and obtained his doctorate in 1865. In 1867 he became an eye doctor in Kassel, later furthering his education in ophthalmic medicine at Paris,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. In 1884 he became a titular professor at the

University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

, where he worked for the remainder of his career. He was the son of

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

Benedikt Stilling (1810-1879). In 1887 Stilling described an eye movement disorder that was to become known as "Stilling's syndrome". This disorder goes by several other names, including "

Duane syndrome Duane syndrome is a congenital rare type of strabismus most commonly characterized by the inability of the eye to move outward. The syndrome was first described by ophthalmologists Jakob Stilling (1887) and Siegmund Türk (1896), and subsequentl ...

", being named after American ophthalmologist Alexander Duane (1858-1926), who studied several clinical cases of the disorder, and in 1905 provided a more comprehensive description of its symptoms. This condition is characterised by limited abduction and/or limited

adduction Motion, the process of movement, is described using specific anatomical terms. Motion includes movement of organs, joints, limbs, and specific sections of the body. The terminology used describes this motion according to its direction relativ ...

of the eye. In 1877 he introduced "Stilling's colour table", which were the first pseudoisochromatic plates used in diagnosis of colour blindness, predating the now ubiquitous

Ishihara test The Ishihara test is a color vision test for detection of red-green color deficiencies. It was named after its designer, Shinobu Ishihara, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who first published his tests in 1917.S. Ishihara, Tests for co ...

by 40 years. Among his written works was a study on

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

called ''Zur Theorie des Glaukoms'', a treatise that was published in

Albrecht von Graefe Albrecht von Graefe may refer to: * Albrecht von Graefe (ophthalmologist) (1828-1870), Prussian opthalmologist * Albrecht von Graefe (politician) Albrecht von Graefe (1 January 1868 – 18 April 1933) was a German landowner and right-wing ...

's ''Archiv für Ophthalmologie''.

Publications

* ''Pseudo-isochromatische Tafeln zur Prüfung des Farbensinnes'' (1883); translated into English as ''Plates for colour vision testing'' (2014) from the 34th German edition. * ''Anilin-Farbstoffe als Antiseptica und ihre Anwendung in der Praxis'' . Vol. 2, Trübner, Strassburg 189
Digital edition
by the University and State Library Düsseldorf

References

''Jakob Stilling''
@

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stilling, Jakob German ophthalmologists 1842 births 1915 deaths Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg Physicians from Kassel