Allvar Gullstrand1862–1930

Nobel ophthalmologist

Gullstrand advanced ophthalmology with his studies of astigmatism and the invention of the slit lamp for examining the interior of the eye. His detailed and mathematical studies of the dioptrical properties of the human eye earned him a high reputation. He occupied the first chair of ophthalmology at the University of Uppsala, and went on to become professor of physical and physiological optics at the same institution. He received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1911. Shortly beforehand (1909) he had edited volume 1 of the third edition of Helmholtz’s Handbuch der physiologischen Optik. The editors of the other two volumes were Willibald Nagel (1870-1911) and Johannes von Kries (1853-1928). The editors added footnotes, notes, and additional references to many of the sections and each wrote extensive appendices based largely upon their own experimental researches. It was the third edition of the Handbuch that was translated into English by James Powell Cocke Southall (1871-1962) as Helmholtz’s Treatise on Physiological Optics. Gullstrand is shown together with an eye (on the left) and in the words describing the condition with which he is associated (on the right).