Report of the Fifth International Opthalmological Congress: Held in New York, September, 1876 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Report of the Fifth International Opthalmolo...)
Excerpt from Report of the Fifth International Opthalmological Congress: Held in New York, September, 1876
I. The object of the International Periodic Congress of Ophthalmology is, to promote Ophthalmological Science, and to serve as a centre to those who cultivate it. It will enter tain no discussion foreign to this object.
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Jacob Hermann Knapp was a German-born American ophthalmologist. During his distinguished career, he set up his own medical practice, was a professor of ophthalmology at the University of the City of New York and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and served as an editor of the Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology.
Background
Jacob Hermann Knapp was born on March 17, 1832 in Dauborn, a village near Wiesbaden, Germany, where his ancestors had been well-to-do farmers for many generations. His father, Johann Knapp, was a member of the German Reichsrath in Berlin. Named Jakob Hermann, Knapp later dropped the first name.
Education
Knapp received his early education in the school of his birthplace which was later supplemented by private instruction from the parish minister. He took his medical degree at the University of Giessen in 1854, about the time that Helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope, thus opening a new world to physicians of that day. It was not unnatural, therefore, that Knapp should be attracted to ophthalmology. After sitting at the feet of Helmholtz, Graefe, Donders, Desmarres, Bowman, and Critchett in the medical centers of Germany, France, and England, he was admitted in 1859, at the age of twenty-seven, to the medical faculty at Heidelberg, his admission thesis on "Optical Constants of the Eye" being given full credit by Donders in 1866 (Die Anomalien der Refraction und Accommodation des Auges) for its share in developing the new subject of physiological optics. Here Knapp labored and shared a friendship with Helmholtz until the latter's death.
Career
In 1865, during his thirty-third year, Knapp became professor at Heidelberg and founded his first ophthalmic clinic there. He had already made his impress upon European medicine to the degree that few men make before midlife. Following a visit to America, Knapp in 1868 decided that New York City offered a larger field of usefulness, and he promptly relinquished home honors and took up abode here. He soon overcame the obstacle of language, and provided himself with a proper workshop by the establishment of the Ophthalmic and Aural Institute, the maintenance deficit of which he had to cover regularly with his own funds. To a large extent, this clinic was modeled after that of Von Graefe of Berlin, its doors being open to rich and poor alike. The Institute was Knapp, and Knapp was the Institute. Under his direction, it acquired the good will of physicians and of laymen, and it soon grew to be a tradition, making its influence felt throughout the continent.
Knapp's life in New York testifies that his absorbing ambition was to serve: he served his patients by affording efficacious treatment to all who came, and his colleagues through educating them in the science and art of diagnosis and treatment. He loved to teach and was particularly apt in presenting his subject matter clearly, especially with the aid of diagrams. He was possessed of unmatched diagnostic ability, of great surgical skill, and he was above all a man of scrupulous intellectual honesty. His most severe critic was himself. He was always ready to help the young man. Consequently, his clinic became a Mecca for budding American specialists.
From 1882 to 1888 he was professor of ophthalmology in the medical department of the University of the City of New York, and from 1888 to 1902 held a similar chair in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His educational work did not stop with his clinic and lecture room but reached out wherever a medical journal can go. In establishing (1869) the Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology, which he edited for many years, Knapp rendered a great service. He conducted this organ on a very high standard, both in subject matter and in illustrations. An omnivorous reader, he kept himself and his readers acquainted with every advance of ophthalmology and otology, both at home and abroad. In addition to his editing, he was the author of over two hundred scientific papers, written out of the fund of his large clinical experience.
(Lang:- English, Pages 364. Reprinted in 2015 with the hel...)
Personality
Knapp's early years on a farm and his regular habits endowed him with unusual health and with almost unlimited working power. He seemed to require little relaxation. He belonged to no clubs and gave almost no time to games and recreations, but never broke down under his arduous program. Apart from his life work, his chief delight seemed to be visiting old friends in the European clinics and observing how he might improve his own. To this end he always kept detailed notes of his observations on tours, so that he might upon a later date recall each event vividly.
Connections
Knapp was twice married: in 1864 to Adolfine Becker, who died in 1874, and in 1878 to Hedwig Sachsowsky. By the first marriage there were three children.