1777 HUDDART, Joseph (1741 – 1816)

An account of persons who could not distinguish colours.

First reliable record of color blindness. Written in the form of a letter to Joseph Priestley, who communicated it to the Royal Society. Huddart was a British hydrographer, engineer and inventor.

GMN 5832 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7085

1798 DALTON, John (1766 – 1844)

Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours.

First scientific description of color-blindness, or “Daltonism”. Dalton himself suffered from red–green blindness. His paper was read to the Society in 1794.

GMN 5834 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7106

1874 HOLMGREN, Alarik Frithiof (1831 – 1897)

Om den medfödda, färgblindhetens diagnostic och teori.

Holmgren introduced the wool-skein test for the diagnosis of color-blindness.

GMN 5911 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6791

1876 –1877 HOLMGREN, Alarik Frithiof (1831 – 1897)

Om färgblindheten i dess förhallande till jernvägstrafiken och sjöväsendet.

A serious railway accident in Sweden in 1875 was believed by Holmgren to be due to color-blindness, and resulted in the above important paper dealing with the condition and its relation to railway and maritime traffic…

GMN 5916 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6815

1879 THOMSON, William (1833 – 1907)

On astigmatism as a cause for persistent headache and other nervous symptoms.

Thomson was a pioneer in the study of refraction. He was much interested in color-blindness and modified Holmgren’s wool-skein test. Himself affected with hypermetropia, he made important investigations on this condit…

GMN 5917 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6819

1891 EDRIDGE-GREEN, Frederick William (1863 – 1953)

Colour-blindness and colour-perception.

Includes (p. 262 et seq.) description of Edridge-Green’s lantern test for color-blindness. This was officially adopted in Great Britain in 1915 in place of the Holmgren test.

GMN 5937 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6893