Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick
Encyclopedia
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
ophthalmologist who invented the contact lens
Contact lens
A contact lens, or simply contact, is a lens placed on the eye. They are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons. In 2004, it was estimated that 125 million people use contact lenses worldwide, including 28 to 38 million in the United...
. He was the nephew of the German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick
Adolf Eugen Fick
Adolf Eugen Fick was a German physiologist. He started to study mathematics and physics, but then realized he was more interested in medicine. He earned his doctorate in medicine at Marburg in 1851...
, and the son of the German anatomy professor Franz Ludwig Fick
Franz Ludwig Fick
Franz Ludwick Fick was a professor of anatomy at the University of Marburg.-Career:Fick studied the developmental mechanics of bone growth, especially of the skull. He invented the cerebral phantom - an openable paper model showing the various parts of the brain that became the prototype of...
.
Adolf Fick was actually raised in the family of his uncle after the premature death of his father, anatomy professor Ludwig Fick. He studied medicine in Würzburg, Zürich, Marburg und Freiburg.
In 1887 he constructed and fitted what was to be considered the first successful model of a contact lens: an afocal
Afocal system
In optics an afocal system is an optical system that produces no net convergence or divergence of the beam, i.e. has an infinite effective focal length. This type of system can be created with a pair of optical elements where the distance between the elements is equal to the sum of each element's...
sclera
Sclera
The sclera , also known as the white or white of the eye, is the opaque , fibrous, protective, outer layer of the eye containing collagen and elastic fiber. In the development of the embryo, the sclera is derived from the neural crest...
l contact shell made from heavy brown glass, which he tested first on rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s, then on himself, and lastly on a small group of volunteers. It was considered the first successful model of a contact lens. His idea was advanced independently by several innovators in the years that followed.
During WWI, Fick headed the field hospitals in France, Russia and Turkey. At the same time he continued working on ophthalmologic anatomy and optics.
External links and sources
- Fick biography - The "Kontaktbrille" of Adolf Eugen Fick (1887)
- Fick biography - Contact Lens History , the overseas pioneers