Ludwig Mauthner

Ludwig Mauthner (1840-1894)

Ludwig Mauthner(13 April 1840 – 20 October 1894) was an Austrianneuroanatomistandophthalmologistwho was a native ofPrague.

He studied medicine at theUniversity of Vienna,where he received his doctorate in 1861. In 1864 he was aprivatdozentofophthalmology,later becoming a professor at theUniversity of Innsbruck(1869). In 1877 he resigned his position atInnsbruck,afterwards returning to Vienna as a lecturer. Later he was appointed assistant director of the Allgemeine Poliklinik, and in 1894 attained the chair of ophthalmology at the university.

In 1859, while still a student, Mauthner described a fibrous structure in thespinal cordof fishes that contained two largecell bodiesin the animals'metencephalon.These cells were to become known asMauthner cells,and are known to exist inamphibiansas well as in fish. Mauthner cells have large-diameteraxonsthat run down the length of the spinal cord.

Mauthner wrote numerous treatises in the field ofophthalmology,includingDie sympathischen Augenleiden,a book that was translated into English in 1881 asThe sympathetic diseases of the eye.He was also the first to describechoroideremia.

Additional eponyms

• Mauthner's sheath: The plasmamembraneof anaxon;also known as anaxolemma.
• Mauthner's test: A test formerly used forcolor perception.

Selected writings

• Lehrbuch der Ophthalmoskopie,Wien 1868.
• Recherches sur la Structure du Système Nerveux,Paris 1868.
• Die Syphilitischen Erkrankungen des Auges,in:Hermann von Zeissl's "Lehrbuch der Augenheilkunde", 1873.
• Die Sympathischen Augenleiden,Wiesbaden1879.
• Die Lehre vom Glaukom,Wiesbaden 1882.
• Die Nuclearlähmung der Augenmuskeln,Wiesbaden 1885.
• Die nicht Nuclearen Augenmuskellähmungen,Wiesbaden 1886.
• Die Lehre von den Augenmuskellähmungen,Wiesbaden 1889.

References

• Franz Daxecker: The Fateful Life of Prof. Ludwig Mauthner. In: Klin Mbl Augenheilk 225: S. 173–174, 2008
• [1]Ludwig Mauthner (1840-1894): Neuroanatomist and Noted Ophthalmologist in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
• [2]biography @Jewish Encyclopedia
• Mondofacto Dictionary(definition of eponym)

External links

• Works by or about Ludwig Mauthnerat theInternet Archive