Ernst Ludwig Alfred Hegar
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Biography of Ernst Ludwig Alfred Hegar
Ernst Ludwig Alfred Hegar was the son of Johann August Hegar (1794-1882), a country practitioner. He spent his student years at the universities of Giessen, Heidelberg, Berlin and Vienna. After receiving his doctorate in 1852 he worked for a brief period of time as a military physician, before he returned to his native city of Darmstadt and settled as a practitioner. Here he soon had a busy practice as an obstetrician. In 1864 he was called to Freiburg in Breisgau to succeed Otto Spiegelberg (1830-1881) as professor of obstetrics and gynaecology.
When the Universitäts-Frauenklinik opened in Freiburg in 1868 he became its first head. During his time here he established the Oberrheinische Gesellschaft für Geburtshilfe, and in 1898 founded the journal Beiträge zur Geburthilfe und Gynäkologie, of which he was the first editor. Hegar was among the first to introduce antiseptic principles. He was known as a hard working man and a skilled surgeon who often began operating at five o'clock in the morning. He retired in 1904.
Through the instruments, methods and diagnostic signs he conceived, his is still a household name among physicians.
