MEDICAL HISTORY MUSEUM
" The Eyes Have It "
An Exhibition Illustrating Advances in Eye Care
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Eye surgery was a dangerous
practice in ancient times, for both patient and doctor - "if the doctor
operates ... on the eye of a gentleman, who loses his eye in the consequence,
his hand shall be cut off" (20th century BC). However cataract surgery
is described in Indian texts dating to before 500 BC. Arabian physician
as made many contributions to the understanding and treatment of eye problems
between the 8th and 12th century AD. Alhazen (11th Century) was the
first to describe lenses and laid the groundwork for the development of
spectacles. The earliest known portraits showing spectacles date
to the 1350s. Glaucoma characterised by increased pressure in the eye was
described by Richard Banister in 1622, though the word was used from earlier
times for conditions not clearly differentiated from cataract
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Microscopes were first designed
in Holland around 1590 by the Jannsen brothers and van Leeuwenhoek, using
a simple microscope in the 17th Century, was the the first to discover
the rods of the retina, the fibres of the lens and the structure of the
optic nerve. Ophthalmoscopes, enabling the physician to view the
retina of the eye, were invented around 1850 and tonometers for measuring
ocular pressure were devised during the 1860s.
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This exhibition highlights some of the developments in ophthalmology.
The first cabinet contains
early ophthalmascopes, Schiotz tonometers and a complete set of spectacle
lenses, items gifted to the Medical History Museum by the daughter
of the ophthalmologist Dr Reginald Balfour Barrow (1889-1996), who graduated
in medicine from the University of St Andrews in 1914.
The second cabinet
contains instruments for testing eye function or demonstrating attributes
of the eye, used in the University's Department of Physiology during the
first half of the 20th century. It includes an "artificial eye"
devised by Professor Willy Kuhne (1837-1900), who discovered the light
sensitive "visual purple" in the retina and was the first to use the word
"enzyme".
The third cabinet contains
early cameras and microscopes used in Dundee Royal Infirmary during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, and tells the story of the German lens
manufacturers who developed the science of the lenses for both cameras
and optical instruments.
The accompanying display
boards outline some of the earliest contributions to ophthalmology and
tell the story of the Dundee Eye Institution, the Royal Dundee Institution
for the Blind, and the early years of the Department of Ophthalmology at
DRI.
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"You do
not see with the lens of the eye.
You see through it,
and by means of it,
you see with the
soul of the eye"
John Ruskin
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Text by Laura W Adam 2000
Update!
A mini version of this exhibition can be seen at Sensation, Dundee's science centre, June-September 2007
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