American Medical Biographies/Holtz, Ferdinand Carl
Holtz, Ferdinand Carl (1843–1908).
Ferdinand Carl Holtz, ophthalmologist of Chicago, Illinois, inventor of the well-known Holtz's operations for entropium, ectropium, trichiasis and trachoma, was born at Wertheim, Baden, Germany, July 12, 1843. His early education he received in the Lyceum at Wertheim, his medical training at Heidelberg (1863–66) and Berlin (1866–67). His medical degree was conferred at Heidelberg in 1865. The teachers who chiefly influenced him at Heidelberg were Helmholtz, Simon and Knapp; at Berlin, Graefe, Virchow, and Langenbeck. After a tour of study to Vienna, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin, he came to America and settled in Chicago in 1869. He was ophthalmic surgeon at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary from 1876 until his death. On the resignation by Dr. Holmes of the chair of ophthalmology and otology in the Rush Medical College, Dr. Holtz was appointed in his place, and this position, too, he held for many years. For a time he occupied the chair of ophthalmology at the Chicago Polyclinic, and he was associate editor of the Journal and Examiner.
His more important writings may be found in the Archiv fur Augenheilkunde, Zeitschrift fur Ohrenheilkunde and in the medical journals from 1876 to 1882.
In 1873 he married Emma, daughter of A. Rosenmerkel, of Chicago.
Dr. Holtz was a man of middle height, thick and stocky, with bushy hair and florid complexion; German to the core, versatile, contentious, sincere and hot-tempered. He was, withal, very unassuming and modest, and extremely helpful to all the younger men with whom he came in contact, who were trying to succeed in ophthalmology. He was a hater of shams and quackery, and was thoroughly aroused and vehement whenever the subject came up. He was naturally inventive, and, even as he lectured to the students, would strike out one original idea after another. Dr. Seth Scott Bishop, of Chicago, declares, "I have never known a more constructive mind." And, similarly, Dr. Franklin Coleman: "In the plastic surgery of the eye, I know of no one who introduced so varied a number of operations as Dr. Holtz."
Dr. Holtz died March 20, 1908.