Adolphe Franceschetti

Adolphe Franceschetti was the son of Karl Adolf Franceschetti and Anna Bertha, née Spitzer, an ophthalmologist. He graduated in medicine from the University of Zurich, and from 1921 he worked in the ophthalmological clinic, but then moved to Basel where he worked with Richard Max Brückner (born 1896). In Basel he obtained the medical doctorate with a dissertation on the intra-ocular fluids. He was habilitated as a Privatdozent in Basel in 1931, and from 1933 to 1966 he was professor and director of the university eye clinic in Geneva. He was a versatile clinician and operator (cornea transplantation), and an untiring researcher. Franceschetti published more than 500 articles, the majority of them on human genetics and inheritable diseases of the eye. In 1948 Franceschetti created a department of human genetics at his clinic. This was headed by David Klein and became the origin of the first institute of human genetics in Switzerland. His name is attached to some 10 syndromes.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper for information submitted.

• A. Franceschetti, D. Klein, P. J. Waardenburg:
  Genetics and Ophthalmology. 1961.
• A. Franceschetti:
  Ueber tapeto-retinale Degenerationen im Kindesalter.
  In: Entwicklung und Fortschritt in der Augenheilkunde. Stuttgart, Enke Verlag, 1963: 107-120. Stargardt’s syndrome.
• A. Franceschetti, et al:
  Le syndrome de Marinesco-Sjögren: Premiere verification anatomique.
  Archives Suisses de Neurologie Neurochirugie et de Psychiatrie, 1966, 97:234-40. Obituaries:
  
• Confinia Neurologica, Basel, 1968, 30: 122.
  
• British Journal of Ophthalmology, London, 1968, 52: 359.
  
• American Journal of Ophthalmology, Chicago, 1968, 66: 134.