Elschnig's pearl =  translucent mass following cataract surgery caused by aberrant attempt of lens epithelium to form lens fibres

Anton Elschnig studied in Graz, where he was conferred doctor of medicine in 1886. He turned to eye medicine and was active as an assistant at the ophthalmological clinics of Graz and Vienna. He was habilitated for ophtalmology in Graz in 1892, 1895 in Vienna. Becoming titular professor in 1900, he was was called to the German University of Prague as full professor in 1907

Elschnig was the publisher of the 2nd and 3rd edition of Handbuch der gesammten Augenheilkunde by Albrecht von Graefe and Edwin Theodor Saemisch, beginning from 1898 and 1912, respectively, and Johann Nepomuk Czermak’s (1828-1873) Operationslehre, 2nd edition, Vienna, 1907. With colleagues he published the Augenärztliche Operationslehre.
 

Bibliography:

• Die Funktionsprüfung des Auges.

Leipzig and Vienna, 1896, 3rd edition, 1923.
 
• Pathologische Anatomie des Sehnerveneintrittes. Berlin, 1900.

 
• Stereoskopisch-photographischer Atlas der pathologischen Anatomie des Auges. 

Vienna and Leipzig, 1901-1902.
 
• Studien zur sympathischen Ophthalmie. 1. Wirkung von antigenen vom Augeninnern aus. 

Albrecht von Graefes Archiv für Ophthalmologie, Berlin, 1910, 75: 459-473.
Elschnig suggested the anaphylactic theory of the pathogenesis of sympathetic ophthalmia.
 
• Keratoplasty.

Archives of Ophthalmology, 1930, 4: 165-173.
Elschnig developed the method of corneal grafting introduced by Eugen von Hippel (1867-1939) and produced good results on the human eye