Almost all soldiers of the armies involved in the Egyptian campaign fell victim to what was later called the ophthalmia militaris which we now know to be caused by Haemophilus aegyptius, N. gonorrhoea and possibly to some extent by Chlamydia trachomatis but more likely by the adenoviruses. Because of the enormous incidence of ocular infection and the controversy generated by speculation on the nature of the disease - English surgeons considered this ophthalmia to be of a contagious nature, whereas the French surgeons violently opposed this view -, the interest in diseases of the eye increased, which eventually resulted in the acceptance of ophthalmology as a separate branch of medicine.
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