Louis-Auguste Desmarres was a French ophthalmologist born in Évreux

Évreux

Évreux is a commune in the Eure department, of which it is the capital, in Haute Normandie in northern France.-History:In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named Mediolanum Aulercorum, "the central town of the Aulerci", the Gallic tribe then inhabiting the area...

, Eure

Eure

Eure is a department in the north of France named after the river Eure.- History :Eure is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

. After obtaining his medical degree he became an assistant to Frédéric Jules Sichel

Frédéric Jules Sichel

Frédéric Jules Sichel was a French physician and entomologist.Sichel was born Frankfurt am Main.After his initial studies he went to live in Paris in 1829 where he opened the first ophthalmic clinic in 1832 and is credited with bringing modern ophthalmology to France from Austria and Germany...

 (1802–1868) in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. He practiced medicine in the hospitals of Paris, and was a teacher to Swiss ophthalmologist Johann Friedrich Horner

Johann Friedrich Horner

Johann Friedrich Horner was an ophthalmologist based at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.After receiving his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1854, Horner continued his studies in Vienna and Berlin. While in Berlin, he was an assistant to the renowned ophthalmologist Albrecht...

 (1831–1886).

Desmarres was one of the better known ophthalmic surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

s in 19th century France, and is remembered for an important textbook on diseases of the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

 called Traité théorique et pratique des maladies des yeux (1847). He is credited for introducing a surgical procedure for pterygium, and has a number of surgical instruments named after him, including: "Desmarres curved lid retractor

Retractor (medical)

A retractor is a surgical instrument by which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The two are each available in many shapes, sizes, and styles...

", "Desmarres corneal

Cornea

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...

 dissector" and "Desmarres chalazion

Chalazion

A chalazion , also known as a meibomian gland lipogranuloma, is a cyst in the eyelid that is caused by inflammation of a blocked meibomian gland, usually on the upper eyelid. Chalazia differ from styes in that they are subacute and usually painless nodules...

 forceps

Forceps

Forceps or forcipes are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Forceps are used when fingers are too large to grasp small objects or when many objects need to be held at one time while the hands are used to perform a task. The term 'forceps' is used almost exclusively...

".

Associated eponym

• Desmarres' dacryoliths: Concretions consisting of Nocardia
  Nocardia
  Nocardia is a genus of weakly staining Gram-positive, catalase-positive, rod-shaped bacteria. It forms partially acid-fast beaded branching filaments . It has a total of 85 species. Some species are non-pathogenic while others are responsible for nocardiosis. Nocardia are found worldwide in soil...
  
  species, located in the lacrimal ducts
  Lacrimal canaliculi
  The lacrimal canaliculi, also known as the lacrimal canals or lacrimal ducts, are the small channels in each eyelid that commence at minute orifices, termed puncta lacrimalia, on the summits of the papillae lacrimales, seen on the margins of the lids at the lateral extremity of the lacus...
  
  .

External links

• 'Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession by Johann Hermann Baas
• Dictionary of the History of medicine