Ernst Pflüger (1 July 1846, in Büren an der Aare – 30 September 1903, in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

) was a Swiss

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

. In 1870 he received his medical doctorate at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

, then furthered his education in ophthalmology at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

with

Franciscus Donders Franciscus (Franz) Cornelius Donders FRS FRSE (27 May 1818 – 24 March 1889) was a Dutch ophthalmologist. During his career, he was a professor of physiology in Utrecht, and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases, directin ...

and at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

with Carl Ferdinand von Arlt. Afterwards, he worked as an eye doctor in

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

, and in 1876 became an associate professor and successor to Henri Dor at the University of Bern. From 1879 up until his death in 1903, he was a full professor of ophthalmology at the university.Pflüger, Ernst
Historischen Lexikon der Schweiz From 1882 to 1896 he developed optotypes for the testing of vision. He also made contributions in the areas of

retinoscopy Retinoscopy is a technique to obtain an objective measurement of the refractive error of a patient's eyes. How It Works The examiner uses a retinoscope to shine light into the patient's eye and observes the reflection (reflex) off the patient' ...

, direct

ophthalmoscopy Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope). It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as part ...

and ophthalmometry. He published around 100 papers on topics such as

myopia Myopia, also known as near-sightedness and short-sightedness, is an eye condition where light from distant objects focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry, while close objects appear normal. ...

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...

color vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different frequencies independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of the larger visual system and is mediated by a co ...

, et al.

Selected works

* ''Beiträge zur Ophthalmotonometrie'', 1871 – On the ophthalmic tonometer.
''Tafeln zur Bestimmung der Farbenblindheit''
1880 – Tables for the determination of

color blindness Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to color vision, see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color percept ...

. * ''Zur Behandlung des Glaukoms'', 1882 – On treatment for glaucoma. * ''Methode zur Prüfung des Farbensinnes mit Hülfe des Flor-Contrastes'', 1882 – Method for testing color sense, etc. * ''Optotypi (Sehproben)'', 1884 – Octotypes. * ''Die operative Beseitigung der durchsichtigen Linse'', 1900 – The surgical removal of the transparent lens.OCLC WorldCat
published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pflüger, Ernst 1846 births 1903 deaths People from Seeland District University of Bern alumni Academic staff of the University of Bern Swiss ophthalmologists