Dallos, Joseph

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology, Photography, film and optics

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b. 1906 Budapest, Hungary

d. 27 June 1979 London, England

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Hungarian ophthalmologist and contact-lens specialist who pioneered the technique of individually fitted moulded-glass contact lenses.

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Dallos graduated from the University of Budapest in 1929 and almost at once specialized in contact-lens work and was appointed Assistant Professor. At that time the fitting of lenses was and had been, since their inception c.1885, a matter of trial and error. He developed a method of taking a moulding of the surface of the eye and then producing a blown-glass lens to this shape. His work was based on a concept of corneal physiology and the need to maintain its normal respiration and metabolism.

In 1937 he was invited to England to set up a centre in London making these innovations available. During the Second World War he worked in collaboration with the services and their special needs, and at its conclusion was invited to work at Moorfields Eye Hospital and later at the Western Opthalmic Hospital. Although plastic materials have now superseded Dallos's technology, the fundamental basis of his work remains relevant.

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Bibliography

1933, "Über Haftgläser und Kontaktschalen", Klin. med. Augenheilk. 1937, "The individual fitting of contact lenses", Trans. Ophth. Soc. UK. 1930–37, Papers in the Klinische Monatsblätter fur Augenheilkunde.

Further Reading

S.Duke-Elder, 1970, System of Ophthalmology, Vol. 5, London.

MG