August von Rothmund

Life & Legacy

August von Rothmund (1 August 1830 – 27 October 1906) was a German ophthalmologist from Volkach, Lower Franconia.
In 1853, he received his doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and furthered his studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin under Albrecht von Graefe (1828–1870); at Charles University in Prague with Carl Ferdinand von Arlt (1812–1887) and at the University of Vienna with Eduard Jäger von Jaxtthal (1818–1884). In 1854, he returned to Munich, where he became director of the surgical policlinic (Reisingerianum). In 1863, he was appointed "full professor", at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he practiced ophthalmology until his retirement in 1900. He was the son of noted surgeon Franz Christoph von Rothmund (1801–1891).
In 1868, Rothmund was the first physician to describe a rare hereditary oculocutaneous disease that consisted of telangiectasia, erythema, congenital cataracts and bone defects, along with other symptoms. This disorder was to become known as the Rothmund-Thomson Syndrome; named in conjunction with British physician Matthew Sydney Thomson FRSE (1894–1969).