Hugo Magnus

Hugo Magnus (31 May 1842 in Neumarkt in Schlesien – 15 April 1907 in Breslau) was a German ophthalmologist and historian of medicine. He was of Jewish ancestry.^[1]

He studied medicine at the University of Breslau, where he was a pupil of Albrecht Theodor Middeldorpf and Hermann Lebert. In 1867 he received his medical doctorate, and in 1873 qualified as a lecturer in ophthalmology. In 1883 he became an associate professor at the University of Breslau.^[2]

He is remembered for his intensive studies of color blindness and color sense.^[3] He also conducted research of eye diseases; in 1874 he made an early observation of what would be later known as Von Hippel–Lindau syndrome,^[4] and in 1878 he provided an early clinical description of proptosis in infantile scurvy.^[5] He was the author of numerous works with history of medicine themes (including ophthalmology).

Selected works

• Das Auge in seinen ästhetischen und cultur-geschichtlichen Beziehungen, 1876 – The eye in its aesthetic and cultural-historical relationships.
• Die geschichtliche Entwickelung des Farbensinnes, 1877 – The historical development of color perception.
• Die Anatomie des Auges bei den Griechen und Römern, 1878 – The anatomy of the eye in reference to the Greeks and Romans.
• Die Farbenblindheit; ihr Wesen und ihre Bedeutung, dargestellt für Behörden, praktische Aerzte, Bahnärzte, Lehrer, 1878 – treatise on color blindness.
• Untersuchungen über den Farbensinn der Naturvölker, 1880 – Studies involving the color sense of primitive peoples.
• Die Augenheilkunde der Alten, 1901 – translated into English by Richey L. Waugh, Jr. in 1998 as "Ophthalmology of the ancients".
• Die methodische Erziehung des Farbensinnes, 1902 – Methodical education involving color perception.
• Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Medicin (with Karl Sudhoff, Max Neuburger), 1902 – Essays on the history of medicine.
• Medicin und religion in ihren gegenseitigen beziehungen; geschichtliche untersuchungen, 1902 – Medicine and religion in their mutual relationships; historical analysis.
• "Visual economics, with rules for estimation of the earning ability after injuries to the eyes", 1902 (published in English, with Henry Würdemann).
• Kritik der medicinischen Erkenntnis; eine medicin-geschichtliche Untersuchung, 1904 – Review of medical knowledge; a history of medicine investigation.
• Die volksmedizin, ihre geschichtliche entwickelung und ihre beziehungen zur kultur, 1905 – Folk medicine, its historical development and its relationship to culture.
• Der Aberglauben in der Medicin; translated into English, edited by Julius L. Salinger as "Superstition in medicine", 1905.^[6]