Ignaz Hirschler
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* Bratislava, March 3, 1823 – † Budapest, November 11, 1891 / physician, ophthalmologist, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; He completed his secondary schooling in his hometown and in Pest, and in 1840 he obtained his medical degree from the Vienna Medical Faculty. In 1840–1847 he was an ophthalmologist in Vienna, assistant to Antal Rózsás, and in 1847–1849 he was an assistant to Louis A. Desmarres in Paris. He returned home at the end of 1849 and practiced private medicine. In 1851 his university application was rejected because of his Jewish religion. From 1851 he was secretary of the Royal Medical Association of Budapest, then vice-president. From 1859 he was chief ophthalmologist of the Rókus Hospital and the Children's Hospital for the Poor. He was the editor of the ophthalmology supplement of the Medical Weekly, and the editor of the journal from 1864 to 1880. He was a pioneer of Jewish emancipation in Hungary and the president of the Hungarian Israelites' party. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1869. He made significant contributions in all areas of ophthalmology. His cataract surgeries, as well as surgical solutions for conjunctival blepharitis, corneal diseases, and ocular tumors, are particularly valuable. He studied the effects of alcohol and other intoxicants and smoking on visual acuity, the ophthalmological connections of venereal diseases, and the various characteristics of color blindness and strabismus. He saved the eyesight of the young Mihály Munkácsy, and then was the attending physician of János Arany for a long time. In his last years, he temporarily went blind, but thanks to an operation, he partially regained his sight. His nephew was Aurél Stein (1862–1943), the world-famous geographical traveler and orientalist, whose studies he also supported financially. ; ; His main works: ; Experiences on the abuse of alcoholic beverages and tobacco as a cause of blindness (academic chair holder), 1870, ; Data for the knowledge of the dye deposited in the corneal plastic, 1872, ; Data for the description of the residual cornea in the cornea, 1874, ; Zur Casuistik der Anaesthesie und Hyperaesthesie der Netzhaut, 1874.