Hermann Jakob Knapp

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Hermann Jakob Knapp (March 17, 1832 - 1911) was a German-American ophthalmologist who was born in Dauborn, Prussia. He earned his medical degree from the University of Giessen in 1854. As a young physician he studied with Franciscus Cornelis Donders in Utrecht, William Bowman in London, Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin and Hermann von Helmholtz in Heidelberg. From 1860 until 1868 he was a professor of ophthalmology at Heidelberg. Afterwards he emigrated to New York City, where he worked as a surgeon and college professor. In 1869 he founded the New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute, and from 1913 until 1939 it was called the Herman Knapp Memorial Hospital. His son, Arnold Knapp (1869-1956) was also a noted ophthalmologist.

In 1869, Knapp along with Salomon Moos (1831-1895) founded the Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology (Archiv für Augenheilkunde und Ohrenheilkunde), which was an international scientific monthly journal that was published in Wiesbaden and New York. In 1878 the name was shortened to "Archives of Ophthalmology" (Archiv für Augenheilkunde).

His name is lent to the eponymous Knapp streaks; also known as angioid streaks, which are tiny breaks in the elastin-filled tissue in the back of the eye. He also created his own version of an ophthalmotrope, a device used in physiological optics to demonstrate the action of ocular muscles individually or in various combinations. Several instruments used in eye surgery bear his name, including the Knapp trachoma forceps.

[edit] Selected writings

"Curvature of the Cornea of the Human Eye" (Heidelberg, 1859):
"Intraocular Tumors" (Carlsruhe, 1868; New York", 1869)
"Cocaine and its Use in Ophthalmic and General Surgery" (New York, 1885)
"Investigations on Fermentation, Putrefaction, and Suppuration" (1886)
"Cataract Extraction without Iridectomy" (1887)
"A Series of One Thousand Successive Cases of Cataract Extraction without Iridectomy" (1887).