| In 1762 the Ecole de Chirurgie in Paris, France was the first medical school to recognize ophthalmology as a surgical subspecialty by establishing a chairmanship. This was followed 10 years later by the appointment of Joseph Barth (1743-1818) as the professor of anatomy and ophthalmology at the University of Vienna. It was Barth’s student, however, Georg Joseph Beer (1763-1821), who is considered the true founder of formal ophthalmic teaching with his appointment as professor of ophthalmology at the University of Vienna in 1812. Georg Joseph Beer was not only an excellent teacher and advocate for ophthalmology, but he argued for the recognition of ophthalmology as a separate specialty within surgery. Dr. Beer wrote several works on how to teach and created textbooks for students in a new style- the monograph. Monographs explored smaller topics in depth in distinction to the comprehensive content of textbooks available previously to students. | 
Georg Joseph Beer
Engraving
Courtesy of the National
Library of Medicine |
