Philipp Franz von Walther

Philipp Franz von Walther (1782 – 1849) was a German surgeon and ophthalmologist who was a native of Burrweiler.

In 1803 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Landshut where he was a student of Georg Joseph Beer (1763-1821), and subsequently was a professor at the Universities of Bamberg, Landshut, Bonn (1818-1830), and Munich. Among his better known students were Johannes Peter Müller (1801-1858) at Bonn, and Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793-1864) and Cajetan von Textor (1782-1860) at Landshut.

Walther is credited for contributions made in several medical fields, but is best known for his pioneer work in ophthalmology and ophthalmic surgery. In 1826 he described the first tarsorrhaphy for closure of a portion of the eyelids for partial ectropion, and in the treatise Ueber die Hornhautflecken, he gave an early account of corneal opacity.

With Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe (1787-1840) he was co-editor of Journal der Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde, an influential journal of surgery and ophthalmology. Walther is also credited with performing numerous experiments involving medical galvanism.

Selected written works

• Ueber die therapeutische Indication und den Techniscismus der galvanischen Operation, 1803
• Ueber das Alterthum der Knochenkrankheiten, 1825
• Ectropicum anguli oculi externi, eine neue Augenkrankheit und die Tarsoraphie, eine neue Augen-Operation (Ectropicum anguli externi oculi, a new eye disease and Tarsorrhaphy, a new eye surgery), 1826
• Ueber die Trepanation nach Kopfverletzungen (Concerning trepanation for head injuries), 1831
• Die Lehre vom schwarzen Star und seine Heilart; Pathologie und Therapie der Amarose (Pathology and Treatment of Amaurosis), 1840
• Ueber die Amaurose nach Superciliar-Verletzungen, 1840
• Ueber die Revaccination (Concerning Re-vaccination), 1844
• Ueber die Hornhautflecken (About spots on the cornea), 1845
• Kataraktologie, Beobachtung einer Cornea conica im chirurgisch-ophthalmologischen Klinikum in München (Observation of a cornea conica in the Surgical Eye Hospital in Munich), 1846
• Wieder-Anheilung einer ganz abgehauenen Nase (S.521-235, 1 Taf.). and Nachricht über die Anheilung einer, zwei Stunden lang völlig abgetrennten Nase; ein Sendschreiben des R.Markiewicz an C.F. Graefe (S.536-537).

References

• Genealogy Database Entry Philipp Franz von Walther]
• Antiquariat für Medizin (translation from German)
• Ophthalmic surgery by Charles Heady Beard