- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Xavier Galezowski

Born  1832
Died  1907

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Polish-French ophthalmologist, born 1832, Lipowice, Poland; died 1907.

Biography of Xavier Galezowski

Xavier Galezowski studied medicine at the University of St. Petersburg, where his thesis on the ophthalmoscope was awarded a gold medal. He then moved to Paris with his uncle, a physician named Severin Galezowski (1801-1878).

From 1859 to 1864 he was an assistant to the famous ophthalmologist Louis-Auguste Desmarres (1810-1882). In 1865 he obtained a second MD degree from The Faculty of Medicine of Paris. His second doctoral thesis concerned the optic nerve in cerebral disease. In 1867 he founded a private clinic on the rue Dauphine and soon gained a reputation as a skilled and hard-working surgeon, over a 30-year period the Galezowski clinic treated nearly 260,000 patients.

Like the German-born French ophthalmologist Louis de Wecker (1832-1906), Galezowski was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour for his efforts during the Franco-Prussian war. After the war their clinics were the most influential in French ophthalmology. He operated throughout France and performed surgery in many European countries and as far away as Persia.

In 1872 Galezowski founded the first French Monthly review, the Journal d'Ophtalmologie, which later became Recueil d'Ophtalmologie.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland, for information submitted.

Bibliography

  • Étude ophtalmoscopique sur les Altérations du nerf optique et sur les maladies cérébrales dont elles dépendent. Paris, Libraire de L. Leclerc, 1865.
  • Sur les alterations de la rétine et de la choroi de dans la diathese tuberculouse.
    1867.
  • Du diagnostic des maladies des yeux par la chromatoscopie rétinienne, précédé d'une étude sur les lois physiques et physiologiques des couleurs.
    Paris, J.-B- Baillière et fils. Libraire de l'Academie impériale de médecine, 1868.
  • Traité de maladies des yeux. 1872.
  • Echelles typographiques et chromatiques pour l'examen de l'acuite visuelle. 1874.
  • Traité iconographique d'ophtalmoscopie. 1876.
  • Leçons cliniques d'ophtalmologie. Paris, Felix Alcan, 1902. August Hirsch, publisher:
  • Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker.
    Urban & Schwarzenberg. 2nd edition. Berlin, 1929. Volume 2: 668-669. Pierre M. Amalric (1923-1999):
  • The Galezowski tradition in Paris.
    Documenta Ophtalmologica, Den Haag, January 1999, 98 (1): 105-113.

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