Johann Adam Schmidt (12 October 1759 – 19 February 1809) was a German-Austrian

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

and

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 ...

who was a native of

Aub Aub () is a town in the Würzburg (district), district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany, southeast of Würzburg and northwest of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, near the border of Baden-Württemberg. It is fed by the river Gollach and divided into t ...

, a town near

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

. He began his medical career as an army ''Unterchirurg'' (under surgeon), and later studied ophthalmology under Joseph Barth (1745–1818) in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In 1795 he became a professor at ''Josephs-Akademie'' in Vienna, where he gave lectures on several subjects in medicine. He performed pioneer research of

iritis Uveitis () is inflammation of the uvea, the pigmented layer of the eye between the inner retina and the outer fibrous layer composed of the sclera and cornea. The uvea consists of the middle layer of pigmented vascular structures of the eye and i ...

, and in 1801 was the author of a significant work on the disorder titled ''Über Nachstaar und Iritis nach Staaroperationen'' (On Post-Cataract and Inflammation of the

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (given name), a feminine given name, and a list of peopl ...

following

Cataract Surgery Cataract surgery, also called lens replacement surgery, is the removal of the natural lens (anatomy), lens of the human eye, eye that has developed a cataract, an opaque or cloudy area. The eye's natural lens is usually replaced with an artific ...

). In 1802, together with Karl Gustav Himly (1772–1837) he founded ''Ophthalmologische Bibliothek'', which was the first German magazine of ophthalmic medicine. In 1811, his book ''Lehrbuch der Materia Medica'' was published posthumously, which was a work on medicinal plants and their properties. In this book the term "

pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the interdisciplinary scientific study of natural drugs and bioactive compounds from plants, animals, and minerals—originally focused on identifying crude drugs but now expanded to molecular, chemical, ecological, and medicin ...

" is originally coined. Schmidt is best remembered as a personal physician of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

, whom he attended to from 1801 until 1809. Beethoven dedicated the Trio for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, and

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

E-flat major E-flat major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically D minor). The E-fla ...

Op. 38 (arrangement of the Septet Op. 20) to Schmidt.

Works

* ''Johann Adam Schmidt's Handschriftlich hinterlassenes Lehrbuch der Materia medica'' . Kupffer & Wimmer, Wien 181
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of the three State Libraries of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

References

External links

Ludwig van Beethoven's Biography

translated biography @

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

1759 births 1809 deaths Austrian ophthalmologists 18th-century Austrian physicians People from Würzburg (district) Surgeons from the Holy Roman Empire {{Austria-med-bio-stub

Works

See also

References

External links