Friedrich Erismann
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Friedrich Erismann (November 14, 1842 - November 13, 1915) was a Swiss ophthalmologist and hygienist who was born in Gontenschwil. In 1867 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Zurich, and subsequently furthered his studies in ophthalmology in Heidelberg, Vienna and Berlin. In 1869 he became an ophthalmologist in St. Petersburg, and several years later participated in the Russo-Turkish War.
Following the war he moved to Moscow, where in 1881 he became a lecturer at the University of Moscow, and in 1884 was a professor of hygiene and director at the institute of hygiene. Erismann was a pioneer of scientific hygiene in Russia, and sought to improve water quality and food standards in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the University of Moscow, one of his students was playwright Anton Chekhov. In 1896 Erismann was dismissed from his position at Moscow for political reasons, as he expressed support of student revolutionaries and denounced the living conditions of the Russian people. Afterwards, he returned to Switzerland and became involved with political and health issues in Zurich.