Alexander Pagenstecher (ophthalmologist)

Friedrich Alexander Hermann Pagenstecher (1828 to 1879) was a German ophthalmologist, born in Wallau. He studied medicine at the universities of Giessen, Heidelberg and Würzburg, took his doctorate in 1849 and went to Paris in 1851 to study ophthalmology. In 1856 he founded an eye hospital in Wiesbaden and directed it until his death; his brother Hermann Pagenstecher, who worked closely with him there, took over the hospital afterwards. He became internationally known for his treatment of glaucoma and cataracts and is remembered for introducing intracapsular cataract extraction as a surgical practice. In 1862 he introduced a yellow precipitate salve, known in German as Präcipitatsalbe, as an eye ointment. He died on 31 December 1879 from injuries sustained in a hunting accident.