Hjalmar August Schiøtz

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Hjalmar August Schiøtz (February 9, 1850 - December 8, 1927) was a Norwegian ophthalmologist who was born in Stavanger. He studied medicine in Kristiania, Vienna and Paris. In 1884 he became head of a polyclinic for ear, nose, throat and eye diseases in Kristiania. Beginning in 1901 he worked solely as an ophthalmologist.

Schiøtz is credited as being Norway's first professor of ophthalmology. He was also a skilled technician and mathematician. While in Paris, he invented a keratometer with Dr. Louis Émile Javal, that was to become known as the Javal-Schiøtz ophthalmometer. This is an optical instrument used to measure the curvature of the anterior corneal surface. He demonstrated the device at the 1881 International Medical Congress in London. In 1905 Schiøtz invented the Schiøtz tonometer, which is an indentation tonometer used to measure intraocular pressure.

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