Otto Heinrich Enoch Becker (May 3, 1828 – February 7, 1890) was a German ophthalmologist who was born near Ratzeburg

Ratzeburg

Ratzeburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the Kreis of Lauenburg.-History:...

. In 1859 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

, where he studied under Carl Ferdinand von Arlt

Carl Ferdinand von Arlt

Carl Ferdinand Ritter von Arlt was an Austrian ophthalmologist who was born in Ober-Graupen, a village near Teplitz in Bohemia. He earned his doctorate in Prague in 1839, and later became a professor of ophthalmology in Prague and Vienna...

 (1812-1887). Beginning in 1867 he was a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Heidelberg.

Becker was a pioneer in ophthalmic pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

, and created numerous writings concerning the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

. Among his many published works, he completed Arlt's autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 Meine Erlebnisse after his former teachers' death in 1887. In 1866 he published a German edition of Franciscus Cornelis Donders

Franciscus Donders

-External links:* B. Theunissen. , F.C. Donders: turning refracting into science, @ History of science and scholarship in the Netherlands.* in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science* P. Eling, , Geneeskundige en fysioloog....

' (1818-1889) Die Anomalien der Accommodation und Refraktion des Auges (On the Anomalies of Accommodation and Refraction of the Eye). He also published anatomist Heinrich Müller

Heinrich Müller (physiologist)

Heinrich Müller was a German anatomist and professor at the University of Würzburg. He is best known for his work in comparative anatomy and his studies involving the eye.He was a native of Castell, Lower Franconia...

's (1820-1864) medical papers in a collection titled Heinrich Müller's gesammelte und hinterlassene Schriften zur Anatomie und Physiologie des Auges.

Dr. José Rizal

José Rizal

José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...

 (1861-1896), martyr and national hero of the Philippines, completed his ophtalmological studies under Professor Becker at the University Eye Clinic Heidelberg in 1886.

In 1887 Becker established the Graefe Museum at the University of Heidelberg in honor of oculist Albrecht von Graefe (1828-1870). He is also credited with introducing the concept cataracta complicata to describe lenticular

Lens (anatomy)

The crystalline lens is a transparent, biconvex structure in the eye that, along with the cornea, helps to refract light to be focused on the retina. The lens, by changing shape, functions to change the focal distance of the eye so that it can focus on objects at various distances, thus allowing a...

 changes that often appear in various ocular diseases, and are generally characterized by punctate, striate or diffuse opacities. Two ophthalmic eponyms that contain his name are:

• Becker's phenomenon: Pulsation of the retina
  Retina
  The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
  
  l arteries in Basedow's disease.
• Becker's test: A test for astigmatism
  Astigmatism
  An optical system with astigmatism is one where rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes have different foci. If an optical system with astigmatism is used to form an image of a cross, the vertical and horizontal lines will be in sharp focus at two different distances...
  
  that uses diagrams of sets of three lines radiating in different meridians.