Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring

Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring (1755 to 1830) was a German medical doctor, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor, born in Thorn in Royal Prussia, who became one of the most important German anatomists and discovered the macula in the retina of the human eye. He studied medicine at the University of Göttingen, taught anatomy at Kassel and at the University of Mainz, and from 1804 worked in Munich on an invitation from the Academy of Science of Bavaria. A creative inventor, he designed a telescope for astronomical observations and an electrical telegraph in 1809, and in 1811 he developed the first telegraphic system in Bavaria, which is kept today in the German Museum of Science in Munich. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1823.