Ferdinand Monoyer Biography

Ferdinand Monoyer was a French ophthalmologist, in charge of including in 1872 the diopter in that branch of medicine, and also by inventing the Monoyer table, with which you can measure the visual acuity of people. He was born in Lyon, France on May 9, 1836.

In 1871, he was a professor of Medical Physics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Strasbourg, where his performance was excellent, and he became Director of the Ophthalmic Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Nancy between 1872 and 1877. After his important work in Strasbourg and Nancy, between 1877 and 1909, he was a professor of Physical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lyon.

By 1872, the magazine Annales d’Oculistiques, released a text by Ferdinand Monoyer, entitled “Sur l’introduction du système metrique dans le numérotage des Verres de lunettes et sur le Choix d’un unité de réfraction” where the Frenchman proposed for the first time to adapt the meaning “diopter” to the power unit of a lens, expressed as the inverse of the focal distance in meters. Thanks to the ideas proposed by Monoyer, in 1875, the Congress of Ophthalmology of Brussels decided to use the diopter as an international unit of refraction in medium optics, which is used worldwide in ophthalmology.

However, Ferdinand Monoyer was not alone in including diopter in ophthalmology, but also invented an optotype chart, with which he sought to make more precise the measurement of visual acuity with adjusted optical correction. The table was composed of ten rows of letters, with two different models, one to measure visual acuity at 3 meters distance, and another at five meters. The objective was that the patient called the letter that the ophthalmologist pointed out, in order to reach the limits of visual acuity of the person.

Ferdinand Monoyer died in Lyon on July 11, 1912, at the age of 76. He was buried in the cemeteries of the Guillotière, where he was accompanied by friends and members of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lyon and the other places where he worked. In his funeral, Professor Hugounenq highlighted the career of Monoyer as president of the University of Lyon, Associate Professor Nogier spoke on behalf of Monoyer students and Dr. Louis Dor gave a speech on behalf of the Lyon Ophthalmological Society.

 

MONOYER TABLE

 

SOME PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS

• Des fermentations, G. Silbermann (Strasbourg): 1862.
• A portable ophthalmoscope, J. Van Buggenhoudt (Strasbourg): 1863.
• Applications des sciences physiques aux théories de la circulation, G. Silbermann (Strasbourg): May 30, 1863.
• Emploi du legs Strauss-Durckheim, typography by G. Silbermann (Strasbourg): 1866.
• Une extraction de cataracte dans a de luxation du cristallin, avec complication du côté du tractus uveal et du corps vitré, G. Silbermann (Strasbourg): 1867.
• Des anomalies de l’refraction de l’œil: notions théoriques et observations cliniques, impr. by G. Silbermann (Strasbourg): 1868
• “Sur l’introduction du couteau linéaire dans la pratique de l’iridectomie” (Strasbourg): 1871.
• “Description and usage of the iconarithme, nouvel instrument destiné à faciliter l’étude des images fournies par les lentilles” (Strasbourg): 1872.
• Épithélioma perlé ou margaritoïde de l’iris, Berger-Levrault (Paris): 1872.
• Notions générales de zymologie, Berger-Levrault et Cie (Paris): 1872.
• Discours d’inauguration prononcé le 19 février 1873: cours d’ophthalmologie, Berger-Levrault et Cie (Paris): 1874.
• Nouvelle formulates destinée à calculer la force réfringente ou le numéro des lunettes du presbyte, Gauthier-Villars (Paris): 1875.
• Du rôle étiologique de la douche descending murale dans le développement des psychronoses, impr. of Berger-Levrault et Cie (Nancy): 1877.
• Théorie des forces cosmiques basée sur les mouvements de la matière pontorable seule, non-existence of the matière imponprerable, impr. of Giraud (Lyon): 1881.
• Théorie générale des systèmes dioptriques centrés, Gauthier-Villars (Paris): 1883.
• Mesure et correction de la presbytie, G. Steinheil: 1898.
• Physique sociale: emploi combiné du système du quotient vrai et du système du quotient fictif pour la répartition des sièges dans the representation proportionnelle, Librairie A. Rousseau (Paris): 1906.