Jaeger Reading Types

Historical Significance: This is a later edition of Jaeger's test types. Eduard Jager von Jaxtthal (1818 - 1884) was an Austrian ophthalmologist and professor at the University of Vienna. He was son to oculist Friedrich Jager von Jaxtthal (1784-1871), and grandson to oculist Georg Joseph Beer (1763-1821) who was famous for his advances in cataract surgery. Eduard Jager is remembered for his work involving eye operations, and his research of ophthalmic disorders. He was an early practitioner of the ophthalmoscope, and was among the first to use ophthalmoscopy to determine the refractive error in the eye. He first published a set of reading samples to document functional near vision in 1854. He published samples in German, French, English (and other languages). He used fonts that were available in the State Printing House in Vienna in 1854 and labelled them with the numbers from that printing house catalogue. It was not until 1862 that Dutch ophthalmologist Hermann Snellen introduced the popular "Snellen chart" for testing disrance visual acuity. Jaeger is also credited with providing the first description of retinal appearances associated with diabetes. See Fischer F. [The first case of diabetic retinopathy; Eduard von Jaeger, Vienna, 1855] Wien Med Wochenschr. 1957;107:969-72. See also Cat No 270 for a 1902 edition of Jaeger's near vision test charts.