Marc Amsler
| Born | 1891 |
| Died | 1968 |
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Biography of Marc Amsler
Marc Amsler was an outstanding teacher of ophthalmology and a highly creative clinician, investigator and designer of instruments and surgical procedures. He studied under Jules Gonin (1870-1935) at the University of Lausanne and became an advocate Gonin's ideas about surgical repair of retinal detachment. He succeeded Gonin in 1935 as chair of ophthalmology at Lausanne, and in 1944 became professor at the University of Zurich.
Amsler pioneered in the study of aqueous humor in uveitis and developed an interest in how to monitor macular symptoms in retinal disease.
It seems likely that Amsler got the idea for his patterns from a small card with a grid pattern that Edmund Landolt (1846-1826) designed to place in the centre of his perimeter to test the macula. Landolt may have intended to describe his test card in print, but he never did, and his plans for the card are not known. It appears to have been Amsler's idea to take the grid out of the perimeter and use it as an independent test and in doing so Amsler experimented extensively with different patterns and different colours of grid design.
