Lucian Rydel (1833-1895)--ophthalmologist and the rector of the Jagiellonian University of Cracow

Lucjan Rydel (1833-1895), was a Polish ophthalmologist, professor and the head of the Department of Ophthalmology in Cracow, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1875-1878 and 1882-1883), the rector of the Jagiellonian University (1884-1888). He studied medicine at the Jagiellonian University and the University of Vienna, where he received the title of Doctor of Medicine in 1859, and Doctor of Surgery in 1861. He was an assistant of F. Arlt. He had four sons: Adam (neurologist), Lucjan (poet), Mieczyslaw, Stanislaw, and two daughters: Helena and Anna. His son Lucjan (1870-1918) was a poet and a playwright of the Young Poland movement, a journalist, a critic, a social activist and a pedagogue. He was a friend of Stanistław Wyspiański. Lucjan Rydel was an author of dozens of clinical and research works published in Polish and German. In his works, he described the diagnosis and treatment of cataracts, corneal diseases, retinal degeneration, retinal detachment and myopia. His article published in 1864 was one of the first comprehensive works in Polish literature devoted to retinitis pigmentosa.