Alfred Vogt

Alfred Vogt (1879 to 1943) was a Swiss ophthalmologist known for developing techniques of retinoscopy and for the surgical management of retinal detachment. He took his doctorate at the University of Basel in 1904, trained in ophthalmology there, began private practice in 1906, headed the eye department of the cantonal hospital in Aarau from 1909, directed the Basel eye clinic from 1917 and then the University of Zurich eye clinic from 1923. He was a pioneer of specular microscopy: around 1913 he used a slit lamp with a corneal microscope to study the front of the eye, and in 1918 he was the first to examine the corneal endothelium directly. In 1936 he introduced perforating cyclodiathermy for glaucoma. He wrote an atlas of slit lamp microscopy of the living eye, and several eye signs and disease names carry his name.