Photinos Panas (1832-1903) became the first professor of ophthalmology at the University of Paris and the founder of the ophthalmology clinic at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital in 1879. He is credited with devising operations for congenital and paralytic ptosis. After his death, a medallic plaquette by the artist Louis Bottee was struck in 1903 to honor Panas as the founder of the ophthalmology clinic at the Hôtel Dieu.
The obverse (Figure 1) depicts the bust of Panas facing right. Below his bust is a young male seated, with his eyes bandaged and head bent. The reverse (Figure 2) depicts the goddess Science, behind a seated young male who is exclaiming at the sight of Athens as the goddess is removing his eye bandages. It is inscribed below in Latin Arte et Stvdio e Tenebris in Lvcem Evocat or translated, "Through art and eagerness, he calls out of darkness into light."