Ignaz von Peczely was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 physician, who is credited with the invention or re-invention of the pseudoscientific

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

 theory of iridology

Iridology

Iridology Iridology Iridology (also known as iridodiagnosis or iridiagnosis is an alternative medicine technique whose proponents claim that patterns, colors, and other characteristics of the iris can be examined to determine information about a patient's systemic health...

. Von Peczely first thought of iridology when caring for an owl with a broken leg. After noticing a spot in the owl's eye he hypothesized a link between the two and later tested this theory with other animals. Iridology is now widely rejected by evidence-based medicine

Evidence-based medicine

Evidence-based medicine or evidence-based practice aims to apply the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to clinical decision making. It seeks to assess the strength of evidence of the risks and benefits of treatments and diagnostic tests...

and regarded as a pseudoscience.