Carl Wedl

Carl Wedl (14 October 1815 – 21 September 1891) was a pathologist who was a native of Vienna, Austrian Empire.

In 1841 he obtained his doctorate in Vienna, and subsequently practiced medicine in Ischl and Salzburg. In 1844 he took a scientific journey to France and England, afterwards returning to Vienna, where he performed histological research. With assistance from Karl Rokitansky (1804–1878), he received his habilitation in 1849. In 1853 he became an associate professor, and in 1872 was appointed professor of histology at the University of Vienna. Some of his well-known students were Heinrich Auspitz (1834–1885), Moritz Kaposi (1837–1902) and Salomon Stricker (1834–1898).

Wedl is largely remembered for his work in microscopic pathology and histology. He made contributions in the fields of helminthology, neurology and ophthalmology, and was one of the first physicians to apply cell theory to pathology of the eye.^[1] The eponymous "Wedl cells" are named after him, defined as dysplastic bladder-like fibers in the crystalline lens of the eye. Drusen, the hallmark of AMD, were first described in 1854 by Wedl.^[2] Wedl named them colloid bodies of the choroid and thought that they were incompletely developed cells, because they had no cell membrane or nucleus.^[3] The genus Wedlia (Cobbold 1860) is named after him, as are the species Didymosulcus wedli (Ariola, 1902), Ascaris wedli (Stossich, 1896) and Paroneirodes wedli (Pietschmann 1926).^[4]

Wedl was the author of numerous books and articles, a few of which have been translated into English. He died on 21 September 1891, bequeathing his estate to the Vienna Academy of Sciences.