Victor Morax

Victor Morax, Paris, 1920

Victor Morax (16 March 1866 – 14 May 1935) was a French ophthalmologist born in Morges, Switzerland.

He studied in Freiburg (Germany) and Paris, and from 1891 to 1903, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. From 1903 to 1928, he was associated with the Hôpital Lariboisière, rejoining the Pasteur Institute as a permanent member in 1929. In 1930, he became a member of the Académie de Médecine.

While at the Pasteur Institute, Morax discovered the bacillus Moraxella lacunata, the cause of chronic conjunctivitis. The disease is sometimes referred to as either "Morax' disease" or as "Axenfeld's conjunctivitis", named after German ophthalmologist Theodor Axenfeld (1867-1930), who made his discovery of the bacillus during the same time period as did Morax.

In 1923, he became vice-president of the "International League Against Trachoma" with bacteriologist Charles Nicolle (1866-1936) serving as its president. In 1929, he published a treatise on the disorder titled Le Trachome. From 1892, he was editor of the journal Annales d’oculistique.

Written works

• Maladies de la conjonctive et de la corné. Sémiologie oculaire. in: Pierre-Félix Lagrange (1857-1928) and Emile Valude (1857-1930)- Encyclopédie française d’ophtalmologie. Paris, 1903-1910.
• Précis d’ophthalmologie, Paris, 1907; fourth edition ca 1932.
• Glaucome et glaucomateux, Paris, 1921.
• Le trachome. with P. Petit, Paris, 1929.

References

• Victor Morax @ Who Named It
• Portail Institut Pasteur (translated biography)