George Frick (1793‐1870) received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1815, and was admitted to practice at the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland as a licentiate in 1817. Sometime before 1819, Frick studied abroad where he met Dr. George Beer, whose teaching influenced him throughout the remainder of his career. His practice in Baltimore, became very successful and he is credited by some as the first American physician to focus his practice to the treatment of eye disease.
A Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye is the first American textbook on ophthalmology. Although Frick wrote many journal articles, this is his only book. It is largely based on Beer's works but also contains many of Frick's own observations. Included in it are discussions on ulcers of the cornea, amaurosis, and cataract.
