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
1783 JUGLER, Johann Heinrich (1758 – 1812)
Bibliothecae ophthalmicae specimen primum eruditorum examini subjicit.
The earliest bibliography and history of ophthalmology.
GMN 5992 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7109
1786 HAÜY, Valentin (1745 – 1822)
Essai sur l’éducation des aveugles, ou exposé des différens moyens, vérifiés par l'expérience, pour les mettre en état de lire, à l'aide du tact, d'imprimer des livres dans lesquels ils puissent prendre des connoissances, de langues, d'histoire, de géographie, de musique, &c., d'exécuter différens travaux relatifs aux métiers, &c.
Haüy founded the first school for the blind. To him belongs the honor of being the first to emboss paper as a means of creating raised type that could be read by the blind. His Essai originated modern methods of teach…
GMN 5833 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7091
1789 –1790 PELLIER DE QUENGSY, Guillaume (1750 – 1835)
Précis ou cours d’ opérations sur la chirurgie des yeux. 2 vols.,
The first separate book on ophthalmic surgery.
GMN 5833.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7097
1791 BEER, Georg Joseph (1763 – 1821)
Praktische Beobachtungen über verschiedene, vorzüglich aber über jene Augenkrankheiten, welche aus allgemeinen Krankheiten des Körpers entspringen.
“This is the first monograph ever published dealing with ocular signs of systemic disease. It deals with lacrimal fistulas, trichiasis, adhesions of the lids, lid ulcers, ephiphora, and ocular inflammations. He illust…
GMN 5833.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7103
1793 YOUNG, Thomas (1773 – 1829)
Observations on vision.
Thomas Young is regarded as one of the most versatile of all scientists. In the above work he showed that the act of accommodation is due to a change of curvature of the crystalline lens, whereby light rays of various…
GMN 1486 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2521
1793 SANTA ANNA, Joaquim José de [Santana] (1720 – 1782)
Elementos de cirurgia ocular offerecidos a Sua Alteza Real o Senhor D. João Principe do Brazil.
The first Portuguese book on ophthalmology. Santa Ana was the first Portuguese physician to specialize in ophthalmology. "He acknowledges (pp. vii-viii) that the section of the Elementos on anatomy and physiology is a…
GMN 9074 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11253
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
1800 –1801 LARREY, Dominique Jean (1766 – 1842)
Mémoire sur l’ophtalmie régnante en Egypte.
The great military surgeon Larrey served during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, where he was the first to observe the contagiousness of trachoma shortly after the successful invasion in 1798. The disease spread to E…
GMN 5837 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7120
1801 YOUNG, Thomas (1773 – 1829)
On the mechanism of the eye.
Includes the first description of astigmatism, with measurements and optical constants.
GMN 1487 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2525
1801 SOEMMERRING, Samuel Thomas von (1755 – 1830)
Abbildungen des menschlichen Auges.
Soemmerring is best remembered for his fine anatomical illustrations, of which those devoted to the human eye are a good example. In 1791 he made important observations on the macula lutea: "De foramine centrali limbo…
GMN 1489 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2536
1801 HIMLY, Karl Gustav (1772 – 1837)
Ophthalmologische Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen oder Beyträge zur richtigen Kenntniss und Behandlung der Augen im gesunden und kranken Zustande. Erstes Stück.
Himly used hyoscyamine to dilate the pupil to facilitate removal of the lens. (p. 97).
GMN 5834.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7110
1801 SCARPA, Antonio (1752 – 1832)
Saggio di osservazioni e d’esperienze sulle principali malattie degli occhi.
This beautifully illustrated work was the first textbook on the subject to be published in the Italian language. Its author has been called “the father of Italian ophthalmology”. English translation, London, 1806.
GMN 5835 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7111
1801 SCHMIDT, Johann Adam (1759 – 1809)
Ueber Nachstaar und Iritis nach Staaroperationen.
Inflammation of the iris was named iritis by Schmidt. In 1801, with Himly, he founded the first journal devoted to ophthalmology, the Ophthalmologische Bibliothek. Digital facsimile of Schmidt's 1801 work from the Int…
GMN 5836 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7115
1802 YOUNG, Thomas (1773 – 1829)
On the theory of light and colours.
Young, the “Father of physiological optics”, established the wave theory of light, explaining the phenomena of interference and dispersion.
GMN 1488 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2529
1803 SCHMIDT, Johann Adam (1759 – 1809)
Ueber die Krankheiten des Thränenorgans.
Schmidt was Professor of Ophthalmology at Vienna. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 5838 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7139
1806 TENON, Jacques René (1724 – 1816)
Observations anatomiques sur quelques parties de l’oeil et des paupières. IN: Mémoires et observations sur l’anatomie, la pathologie, et la chirurgerie, pp. 193-207.
Although Tenon did not discover the fibrous capsule and the interfascial space of the orbit, they are named after him.
GMN 1490 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2559
1807 VETCH, John (1783 – 1835)
An account of the ophthalmia which has appeared in England since the return of the British Army from Egypt.
Vetch described trachoma.
GMN 5839 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7142
1808 –1818 WARDROP, James (1782 – 1869)
Essays on the morbid anatomy of the human eye. 2 vols.
Wardrop was the first to classify the various inflammations of the eye according to the structures attacked. He was also the first to use the term “keratitis”.
GMN 5840 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7146
1811 LANGENBECK, Konrad Johann Martin (1776 – 1851)
Prüfung der Keratonyxis, einer neuen Methode den grauen Staar durch die Homhaut zu recliniren oder zu zerstückeln.
Langenbeck’s operation of iridencleisis for construction of artificial pupil. He was Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Göttingen.
GMN 5841 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7149
1812 –1817 LARREY, Dominique Jean (1766 – 1842)
Mémoires de chirurgie militaire, et campagnes. (Vol. 5 entitled Relation médicale de campagnes et voyages.) 5 vols.
Larrey was the greatest military surgeon in history. Of him Napoleon said: “C’est l’homme le plus vertueux que j’ai connu”. He was present at all Napoleon’s great battles and one of the few who stood by him on his abd…
GMN 2160 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/888
1813 –1817 BEER, Georg Joseph (1763 – 1821)
Lehre von den Augenkrankheiten. 2 vols.
Beer is remembered for his textbook; the doctrines in it dominated practice for many years. He described the symptoms of glaucoma and noted the luminosity of the fundus in aniridia. He also presented for the first tim…
GMN 5842 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7153
1817 HAÜY, Valentin (1745 – 1822)
Notice historique sur l'Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles.
The first book printed in heavily embossed type for the blind. In 1819 Sebastien Guillé issued a second edition of this work identifying himself as the author.
GMN 13247 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15512
1818 DEMOURS, Antoine Pierre (1762 – 1836)
Traité des maladies des yeux. 3 vols. and atlas.
Includes the first description of glaucoma in which heightened intraocular pressure is recognized, credit for which goes to the author’s father, Pierre Demours (1702-95), whose portrait appears in the atlas in recogni…
GMN 5842.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7157
1819 JACOB, Arthur (1790 – 1874)
An account of a membrane in the eye, now first described.
“Jacob’s membrane”, the layer of the retina containing the rods and cones.
GMN 1491 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2560
1819 PURKYNĔ, Jan Evangelista [PURKINJE] (1787 – 1869)
Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Sehens in subjectiver Hinsicht.
Purkynĕ’s graduation dissertation on the subjective visual phenomena earned for him the appreciation of Goethe and the chair of physiology at Breslau. Reprinted in his Opera omnia, vol. 1, pp. 1-56,1918. There were tw…
GMN 1492 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2563
1820 TRAVERS, Benjamin (1783 – 1858)
A synopsis of the diseases of the eye.
The earliest systematic treatise in English on diseases of the eye. The book became the authority in Europe and America. Travers, a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, became surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital.
GMN 5843 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7161
1823 FRICK, George (1793 – 1870)
A treatise on the diseases of the eye.
First American textbook of ophthalmology by the first American who is believed to have restricted his practice to diseases of the eye. Frick studied under Georg Beer in Vienna.
GMN 5844 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7164
1823 GUTHRIE, George James (1785 – 1856)
Lectures on the operative surgery of the eye.
Guthrie founded the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, London, in 1816. He was the earliest teacher of the subject in the British Isles. The above includes important work on the artificial pupil.
GMN 5845 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7168
1823 PURKYNĔ, Jan Evangelista [PURKINJE] (1787 – 1869)
Commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei.
Purkynĕ was first to examine the interior of the human eye and the dog eye, using only a candle and a concave spherical lens. He thus invented the ophthalmoscope three decades before Helmholtz (1851; No. 5866). Reprin…
GMN 1492.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8806
1824 FLOURENS, Marie Jean Pierre (1794 – 1867)
Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux, dans les animaux vertébrés.
Experimental proof that vision depends on the integrity of the cerebral cortex. See No. 1391 for his first paper on the subject. Partial English translation in von Bonin, Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfiel…
GMN 1493 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2568
1824 HORNER, William Edmonds (1793 – 1853)
Description of a small muscle of the internal commissure of the eyelids.
Homer described the tensor tarsi (Horner’s) muscle, supplying the lacrimal apparatus. It was first described by Du Verney in 1749
GMN 1494 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2570
1825 PURKYNĔ, Jan Evangelista [PURKINJE] (1787 – 1869)
Beobachtungen und Versuche zur Physiologie der Sinne. Neue Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Sehens in subjectiver Hinsicht. 2 vols.
“Purkynĕ phenomenon” or “Purkynĕ shift”, a change in the apparent relative luminosity of colors in a dim light (scotopic vision) compared with that in full daylight (photopic vision). Also published in Rust’s Mag. ges…
GMN 1494.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2573
1826 MÜLLER, Johannes Peter (1801 – 1858)
Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der Thiere.
Includes Müller’s law of specific nerve energies. For an English translation, see his Elements of physiology, transl. W. Baly, London, 1838, vol. 1, pp. 766-67. Includes (p. 73) his explanation of the color sensations…
GMN 1257 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2130
1827 AIRY, Sir George Biddell (1801 – 1892)
On a peculiar defect in the eye, and a mode of correcting it.
Airy, Britain's Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881, was the first to devise a sphereocylindrical lens for correcting astigmatism, a condition from which he himself suffered in his left eye. Airy's method is still used…
GMN 5847 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7171
1829 FRICKE, Johann Karl Georg (1790 – 1841)
Die Bildung neuer Augenlider (Blepharoplastik) nach Zerstörungen und dadurch hervorgebrachten Auswärtsweundungen derselben.
First extensive treatise on the use of pedicle grafts from the temple and cheek for supplying necessary skin for the reconstruction of deformed eyelids.
GMN 5742.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6550
1829 BRAILLE, Louis (1809 – 1852)
Procede pour écrire les paroles, la musique et le plain-chant au moyen de points, a l’usage des aveugles et dispose pour eux.
This large quarto volume of 4 preliminary leaves and 32 pages included the first presentation of the Braille system of printing and reading for the blind, which represents letters and numbers by combinations of six do…
GMN 8925 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11103
1830 SCHLEMM, Friedrich (1795 – 1858)
Arteriarum capitis superficialium icon nova.
Includes description of the “canal of Schlemm”, the circular canal at the junction of the cornea and the sclerotic.
GMN 1456.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2360
1830 MACKENZIE, William (1791 – 1868)
A practical treatise on diseases of the eye.
In this book Mackenzie, one of the foremost ophthalmologists of his time, included a classic description of the symptomatology of glaucoma, and was probably the first to draw attention to the increase of intra-ocular …
GMN 5848 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7172
1832 FIELDING, George Hunsley (1801 – 1871)
On a new membrane in the eye.
“Fielding’s membrane”, the tapetum of the retina.
GMN 1496 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2574
1833 LAWRENCE, Sir William (1783 – 1867)
A treatise on the diseases of the eye.
Based on lectures delivered by Lawrence at the London Ophthalmic Infirmary. He was a surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; he succeeded Abernethy as lecturer on surgery and did much to advance the surgery of the eye.
GMN 5849 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7174
1834 DALRYMPLE, John (1804 – 1852)
The anatomy of the human eye.
First English work on ocular anatomy.
GMN 1497 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2575
1835 JULLIARD, Etienne François
De l’emploi de l’excision et de la cautérisation à l’aide du nitrate d’argent fondu dans l’ophthalmie blennorrhagique.
Silver nitrate for treatment of gonococcal ophthalmia. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.
GMN 5850 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7177
1836 GRIFFITH, Mary (1772 – 1846)
Discoveries in light and vision; with a short memoir containing discoveries in the mental faculties.
The first work on vision written by a woman and published in the United States. Griffith published the work anonymously. "Griffith’s work had its start in print in 1834, when she published two articles on vision in Da…
GMN 11430 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13629
1837 BIGGER, Samuel Lenox L. (1809 – 1891)
An inquiry into the possibility of transplanting the cornea, with the view of relieving blindness…
Bigger, a Dublin surgeon, successfully grafted a cornea of one gazelle onto that of another. According to this paper, he first performed this operation in 1835 while he was “a prisoner with a Nomadic tribe of Arabs, a…
GMN 5850.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7181
1837 BRAILLE, Louis (1809 – 1852)
Procéde pour écrire au moyen des points.
Braille, himself blind, modified the system of elevated points first suggested by Charles Barbier in 1820 for enabling the blind to read. In 1837 he added symbols for mathematics and music to his six dot system.
GMN 5851 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7185
1838 WHEATSTONE, Sir Charles (1802 – 1875)
Contributions to the physiology of vision.
GMN 1498 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2576
1838 –1847 AMMON, Friedrich August von (1799 – 1861)
Klinische Darstellungen der Krankheiten und Bildungsfehler des menschlichen Auges, der Augenlider und der Thränenwerkzeuge nach eigenen Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen. 4 pts.
This great color-plate atlas is probably the best summary of the knowledge of diseases of the eye prior to the introduction of the ophthalmoscope.
GMN 5852 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7188
1838 CARRON DU VILLARDS, Charles Joseph Frédéric (1801 – 1860)
Guide pratique pour l’étude et le traitement des maladies des yeux. 2 vols.
Carron du Villards taught ophthalmology in Paris; his book is one of the best of the period.
GMN 5853 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7192
1840 –1844 BREWSTER, Sir David (1781 – 1868)
On the conversion of relief by inverted vision.
GMN 1499 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2577
