Johann Adam Schmidt

Johann Adam Schmidt (1759-1809) was a German-Austrian surgeon and ophthalmologist who was a native of Aub, a town near Würzburg. He studied under Joseph Barth (1745-1818) in Vienna, and began his medical career as an army surgeon. In 1789 he became a professor of anatomy and surgery at "Josephs-Akademie" in Vienna.

Schmidt is known for his pioneer work with lacrimal surgery and his research of iritis. In 1802 with Karl Gustav Himly (1772-1837) he founded "Ophthalmologische Bibliothek", which was the first German magazine of ophthalmic medicine. In 1811 his "Lehrbuch der Materia Medica" was published posthumously, which was a work on medicinal plants and their properties. In this book the term "pharmacognosy" is originally coined.

Schmidt is best remembered as a personal physician of Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he attended to from 1801 until 1809. Beethoven dedicated the trio for piano, violin and cello in E flat major opus 38 (arrangement of the Septet opus 20) to Schmidt.

ee also

* Georg Joseph Beer
* Joseph Barth
* Karl Gustav Himly

References

* [http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyDoctors.html Ludwig von Beethoven's Biography]